Some Kind of Wonderful
by Under a Rain Cloud
Summary: Neji is the unnotice artist/genious. Tenten is the punky girl that likes weapons. At school they are two of the only people who strive to be different. When Neji starts to fall for one of the most popular girls at school, how will Tenten react?
1. Chapter 1

I was watching a movie and got inspired to write this

**I was watching a movie and got inspired to write this. This is kind of a high school story, and if you have seen the movie, some things will be changed to fit this story. The movie is called Some kind of Wonderful, which I don't own. WARNING characters may be very OOC.**

**So I don't own Naruto OR some Kind of Wonderful.**

A young man walks down the dusty streets. A slow, aimless walk. He is lost and lonely, a setting sun at his back. He is handsome in a rugged and mysterious way. But for now he is alone. His face is blank, but inside great sadness and confusion dwell. His name is Huuga Neji.

She's throwing kunai at a target. Hard, precise and serious, with a great purpose and need. She is some what boyish and tough; her prettiness is intentionally buried beneath acres of attitude. This is Tenten, weapons mistress.

Beautiful girl, handsome boy, perfection meets perfection. Making out by the old tree, near their training field. She's Haruno Sakura, and he's Ulchia Sasuke.

A freight train is thundering down the tracks. A horn blasts. The boy we saw before, Neji, continues down the tracks. The train is bearing down on him. Neji is walking into the approaching train, the horn blasts again. Neji watches the train with no reaction. A collision with the train will only give him what he wants. Change. The train shudders and rocks on the tracks. The horn blasts and holds this time. Still Neji's face remains emotionless. It's nearly on him, but he steps out off the tracks at the last moment. Neji heads down the embankment as the train hurtles past, his face exactly the same as before.

In a lower middle class neighborhood it is late afternoon. The homes of the working people are colored in the beautiful reflecting light of the setting sun. A black corvette is parked in the driveway of one of the houses. It stands out among the more utilitarian vehicles on the street. The door to the house opens and out walk the same two people that were making out earlier. Her shirt is untucked, and her hair is very messy. Her face is flush, almost to the point of matching her candy colored hair. He's in a hurry, done with her, on to other things. She pulls him back and kisses him, but there is no tenderness on his part, it is one sided.

Neji is across the street, leaning on a lamp post. His gritty hands wrapped around the pole. Washed but never clean. A hint of anger, a touch of resentment are soon concealed behind his mask. Sasuke doesn't belong in this part of the village, and certainly doesn't deserve the girl.

Sasuke gets in his car, fires up the engine and backs out of the driveway. Sakura waves goodbye from the porch. Sasuke drops the corvette into gear and squeals away. An irresistible show of disrespect for this part of the village.

There is something tragic about Neji's expression. Sasuke has everything money can buy and now he is stealing the things it can't. Neji watches as Sakura goes back inside the house. His observation is careful and considering. He looks at his greasy hands, too dirty to touch her. He pushes off the pole and starts his way back home. Neji's home is in a modest neighborhood, clean but simple. Neji cuts across the freshly mown lawn, up the driveway and around the back of the house. Neji's aunt is at a small built-in desk beneath a wall phone, balancing her checkbook. She is wearing Huuga whites, and is cooking diner. A shy girl, the year younger then Neji sits at the counter. She is cutting carrots that will go into the salad that she is making. His aunt addresses him without looking up.

"Hi, Honey. How was work?"

Neji exits into the dining room.

"You still haven't told me when you're going to cut your hair." She says.

"Mother, yo-your t-elling him t-his in v-vain. You know t-that h-he l-likes to go by H-huuga t-t-tr-tradition." Hinata says.

Neji crosses into the foyer. His Uncle calls to him from the living room.

"Neji? Is that you?"

Neji stops at the bottom of the stairs, and sighs. Caught. He swings around and steps into the living room. Neji's uncle. Hiashi, is sitting on the couch. Spread out in front of him are University brochures. Neji looks at his uncle and the brochures. He is suspicious. Hiashi speaks without looking at Neji.

"I've been checking out colleges…" He looks up at Neji.

"Aren't you a little too old for college?" Neji says with his trademark smirk.

Hiashi gives Neji an incredulous stare. Incredulous that Neji can be so cavalier about a subject that Hiashi considers vital, pressing and overwhelmingly serious. There's no humor to his retort.

"If I had gone to college, I wouldn't be selling tires six days a week." Hiashi is very serious. "If you don't get with the program, you'll be selling tires too. Just look at a few brouches, a bunch came in the mail today."

"Can I do it later?" this is the Neji wants to do. But Hiashi has been put off before.

"I' not trying to break your back, I just want you to get off the dime and think about your future." Hiashi said.

Neji nodes, he's heard this all before. Hiashi adds one more thought the main college issue. "You'll be the first man in this house who won't have to wash their hands after work."

Neji knows, all too well. He shows off his hands to Hiashi. Their dirty, motor dirty, like Hiashi said. He pushes off the arch of the door and heads back to the foyer. He heads upstairs, side-stepping the debris piled on the stairs to be carried up at anyone's convenience. Neji opens his door and stops cold. Neji's younger cousin, Hana, is sitting on the floor going through his records. LP's are out of their sleeves, and she is rudely holding an LP, looking at the label.

Neji's room is a shrine to art. It's a serous shelter from the outside world. One wall is covered, every inch, with reproduction posters, art show posters, art postcards, reproductions torn from books and magazines. A collage of the History of Art. A second wall is devoted to his own sketches, and the third wall is a trompe l'oeil of an endless marble gallery. The forth wall is hung with his own canvases. A stereo carefully put together out of discarded pieces and parts. His bed is a mattress on the floor. A chair direct from the dump in the corner, a rug from off the curb during spring trash pick up day lays on the floor. A desk is made from an old door, held up with two oil drums is near the bed. The surface of the desk is covered in sketches and Indian ink pens and brushes, ink bottles. Clay and plaster models and studies. Everywhere are found objects, things intended for future pieces and studies. It is an artist's studio in a boy's bedroom. There's no question from his surroundings that he's serious about his talent.

"I'm looking for that song about the guy that killed himself for that girl who hated his guts." Hana said as she looked up at Neji. Neji is furious, but keeps his emotions hidden like usual. Hana either doesn't notice his anger or disregards it. (The later) "Do you know which song I'm talking about?"

Neji takes the LP away from Hana saying "Do you understand the concept of privacy?"

"Yes, I do. That's why I don't let anyone in my room." She replies.

"Get out of here before I throw your ass out the window."

"Man, are you in a bad mood!" Hana says outraged,

"Get out of here." Neji continues

"Is this a side effect of being massively unliked or…?" Hana said

Neji grabs Hana by the arm and pulls her to her feet. He then walks over to the door and shoves her out.

"If I get a black and blue monger, you're dead!" But Neji slams the door on her, cutting off any sound that she continued to make.

The family is eating dinner, and Hana is showing her arm to her mother. "Look at it. You see what he did to me?"

Her mother looks "I don't see anything,"

"Then I guess you need glasses. If I had wanted to sit outside on a nice sunny day and get a tan, I couldn't wear a bathing suit."

"You should be c-careful H-Hana, e-exposing your skin to sunlight w-will make y-you o-old be-before y-your time." Hinata said.

The Hiashi interjects into the conversation. "Hana stay out of his room. And Neji, if she is causing you trouble come to me before you act rashly."

"What right does she have to break into my room? And I did not act rashly." Neji commented.

"I have practically no feeling left in the upper part of my arm," Hana said

"Drop it." Hiashi commanded.

"Just once I wish you guys could experience the humiliation of having the weirdest guy in a huge school is a blood relative." Hana said.

"Your father said drop it."

"The whole family revolves around Neji. I'm sick of it."

Neji set down his fork and napkin as his Aunt spoke "That's not true and you know it."

"I'll be upstairs." Neji says as he excuses himself from the table.

"But you haven't finished your dinner."

Neji leaves the room, but Hiashi calls after him "What about these colleges, Neji?" he waits for an answer, when none come he continues "I expect an answer."

"Do you know what a total waste of money it's going to be letting him go to college? He'll have this expensive education that he'll never use because all he wants to do is make incredibly ugly art that won't ever look good in anybody's house." Hana mumbles. And Hiashi and his wife stare at her "Am I wrong?"

Neji is sitting at his desk, looking at a tattered photo. It's a candid snapshot of a girl looking back over her shoulder with a caught expression on her face. She is a beautiful girl, the girl he sees at school everyday, with her jerk boyfriend. Sakura. Neji drips his brush in ink and applies it to paper. His steady hand draws the sweep of a girl's neck and shoulder. Another produces a fine, strong jaw line. There is a hint of a smile on Neji's face as he looks at his first strokes.

**That's it for this chapter. And I just want to say that I personally HATE sakura. So there may be some Sakura bashing in later chapter. And for all you Neji Tenten fans out there, it will come, I promise. Please review, I hope you liked it.**


	2. Chapter 2

**The next chapter, hope you enjoy! Just a little warning, there will be some bad hits on Tenten in this chapter. I don't like it, but it's what happens in the movie so…just don't get mad at me, it just part of the movie.**

A battered, wasted old fashion Mini Cooper with an English drive, whips into the parking lot of a normal high school. The almost totaled car narrowly misses a shiny new sports car as it swerves into a vacant parking spot. The door opens; a black shoe covered with metal studs steps out of the car. We move up from the shoe, past worn, torn jeans, a blue Chinese style tank top, black hoddie, two kunai shoved in a black leather belt, red kid gloves and a cheap watch with a metal stretch band on the arm of the girl we saw earlier throwing weapons at a target. She's Tenten, weapons mistress. With a big breathless smile on her face, enjoying the rush of a near miss, but she never misses. The affirmation of life that comes from the challenge of the missed car. She takes off her tiny red sunglasses and looks in the car.

"Are you aware of how close that was?" she says

From the car Neji looks up at her. He's annoyed with her driving, and the answer to her question is written on his face. He can't help but smile a bit at her exhilaration. He picks up his books off the seat and gets out. He has to squeeze out, Tenten parked a little close to another car on his side.

"Imagine what I can do when I get my drivers license back." She gives him a big smile and twirls a kunai on the end of her finger.

Sasuke and a couple of his friends are hanging in the parking lot, leaning against a tricked out Toyota truck. Music plays out of the truck as Sasuke bends the radio antenna over. With his free hand he holds the owner of the truck away. His intention isn't to do any damage, only harass his friend. The game is interrupted as something catches Sasuke's eye. The weapons mistress and Neji heading into school. Sasuke lets go of the antenna and points Neji and Tenten out to his friends, with a big derisive smile.

Tenten and Neji head across the parking lot to the school. They're both unaware that they are being watched. She's fiddling with a kunai as she walks.

"You don't have any books?" Neji asks

"Not on me." She replies

"You never study, do you?" Neji comments

"Not school stuff. My urge is to master every weapon there is. Tell me how reading some dumb book about a boy lying in a field will give me better weapons skills."

"You have no desire to get out of this place?" he says

"You are talking to someone who was raised on cocktail onions and cigarette butts. I'd like nothing better. I have two feet, I'll get out, I'm not worried. You must be getting heat from your old man about college again."

"It's all he thinks about," Neji said

"In comparative terms, it's probably better to have an old man nagging you about the future then to have no old man to nag you about anything." Tenten sighs

"Things not too good at home?"Neji asks

"The same."

They reach for the school doors, there's a crowd. Tenten taps out a little riff on the back of a kid' bag who is standing in front of her.

"It doesn't matter. As long as you stand by me, I'm covered." Tenten says,

"Where would I be with out you?" Neji replies.

"Seeing as I drive you to school every day, you'd probably be sitting on your front porch."

The kid Tenten taped earlier turns around. He's an lazy little freshman dead head. His mane is Shikamaru.

"Do you mind?" he says.

"Very much so," she replies

Tenten twirls her kunai and gives him a light pop on the head with the hilt of the knife. She steps in front of him and opens the door for Neji. The two continue down a crowded hallway. It's a corridor claimed by the head bangers. The angry flotsam of school loiters on the window ledges. Listening to music, laying comatose, talking loudly, and verbally abusing anyone and everyone that passes. Including Neji. His dark clothes and blank expression and boots make him appear at home in the corridor. But he's not immune to attack.

"Hey! Paint my picture!" A voice yells.

"Some day when your stuff's hanging in a museum and these guys are OD'd you'll be laughing." Tenten tells Neji

"I'm laughing now," said Neji

"I think its hip that you paint. I think it's hip that I throw weapons at things. And it's perfect that we're friends." Tenten said.

Neji stops, Tenten stops, and Neji looks down. A leg is stuck out, across his path. The leg belongs to a big ugly looking skin head. He smiles. Neji looks at he kid, but the kid doesn't move. Neji steps over the obstruction, but the skinhead pulls his leg away, making it look like Neji high stepped over nothing. The skin head's group laughs and Neji stares at the skin head.

"That's real original. How long have you been pulling that one?" said Tenten to the arrogant skinhead known as Kiba.

**BAD HIT TO TENTEN AT THIS POINT!!! BUT THERE IS A LITTLT NEJTEN MONENT, SO JUST HANG IN THERE!**

"How long have you been a lesbian?" Kiba says

Tenten's face goes ashen, and Neji's face tightens.

"You're carrying too much up front to be a guy. So you must be a…"

Neji grabs Kiba by his jacket front and pulls him to his feet. Neji realizes that he's grabbed more then he anticipated as the skin head towers over him. A male teacher rudely shoves his way through the crowd. He is assigned to security; he has a two way radio on his belt "That's enough!" the teacher yells as he grabs Neji's shoulder and pushes him aside. "Clear out." The teacher adds. "Now!"

Neji and Tenten head down the hall. Tenten turns and points her kunai at Kiba. "Wimp." She says, and follows after Neji.

**ALRIGHT ALL OVER, IF YOU DIDN'T WANT TO READ IT HERE IS YOU'RE SIGNAL TO START READING AGAIN.**

The teacher turns to Kiba "I didn't do anything! He jumped on me! Why don't you nail him?" Kiba says.

The teacher flips a pack of Marlboro's out of skinhead's shirt pocket. "It's not my shirt." Kiba replies.

He reaches around and yanks a half pint out of skinhead's hip pocket. "That's just for show." Is Kiba's new excuse.

Then the teacher reaches in the other pocket and takes out a packet of obscene playing card. The teacher looks at him. "Those were a gift," Kiba tries his most charming smile.

"You just got detention, mister." Teacher says

Neji's slumped down in a chair in the back of the library, working in his sketchbook. He got his eye on something as he draws. Haruno Sakura is across the room studying at a table. A boy is sitting with her at the table. His back is to Neji. Neji is obviously very taken with her. He watches her every move, but then feels eyes upon him. Uneasiness comes over him, and he shifts his eyes quickly. Sasuke's turned in his seat, looking directly at Neji. He is not pleased. Neji is caught. He looks down to avoid the stare, he waits for a moment then looks back up. Neji now sees that Sasuke is the boy with his back to him earlier. Sakura looks from Sasuke to Neji. Neji tries to convince himself that he's not intimidated, he looks away, another beat and he returns his look to Sasuke. He's still looking at Neji. Sasuke points to Neji, holds up a pencil, points to Sakura, points to his neck, points to Neji, points to the pencil, turns it straight up and snaps it in half.

A crusty, older woman looks up with a scowl and lets out a loud, shhh! Neji looks at Sasuke to let him know that he doesn't scare that easily. Sakura looks from Sasuke to Neji, wondering what Neji is doing.

Neji is walking down the hallway. Tenten pushes her way through the crowd to Neji.

"Neji!"

Neji stops, she's flustered and nervous.

"Are you sitting down?" Tenten asks

"No. I'm standing in the hall way." Neji says

"Right, I have some bad news." Said Tenten

"What?"

"This is unconfirmed but I have it from a reliable source." Tenten answers

"What?" Neji asks again

"I think your Uncle's at school."

"How do you know it's my uncle?" Neji asks

"I know the hats he wears." Tenten replies.

**End chapter two, yeah! Please review it would be much appreciated.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey, I'm back! Sorry this has taken so long, but I lost the inspiration. Sorry to make you wait.**

**I own nothing, including the Some Kind of Wonderful ideas.**

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Recap:

_Neji is walking down the hallway. Tenten pushes her way through the crowd to Neji._

_"Neji!"_

_Neji stops, she's flustered and nervous._

_"Are you sitting down?" Tenten asks_

_"No. I'm standing in the hall way." Neji says_

_"Right, I have some bad news." Said Tenten_

_"What?"_

_"This is unconfirmed but I have it from a reliable source." Tenten answers_

_"What?" Neji asks again_

_"I think your Uncle's at school." _

_"How do you know it's my uncle?" Neji asks_

_"I know the hats he wears." Tenten replies._

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A straw panama is sitting on the desk. Hiashi has taken the day off to talk to Neji's counselor, a gaunt man in his fifties, Mr. Jiraiya.

"So there nothing special we need to know about filling out the applications?" Hiashi asked

"Just what we covered," Jiraiya replies

"I don't mean to be any trouble, I just want to double-check. You know kids; they wait until the last minute on everything."

"You have plenty of time. Has Neji decided on a school yet?" Jiraiya asks

"We're zeroing in on a few."

"He's indicated to me that he is interested in a few art schools."

"I don't think that's going to happen," Hiashi said shaking his head "He comes out of an art school, what's he qualified to do? I'm looking for a good business program. I think he has a good head for business."

"The indications I've gotten are that he is more creatively inclined." Jiraiya says.

"Fine. We're looking for a business school. He can be creative in his spare time." Hiashi said moving to the next subject. "How is he doing other wise?"

"Fine."

"Grades holding up?" Hiashi asked

"Very well."

Hiashi picks up his hat and offers his hand to Mr. Jiraiya. "Good. Thanks for the time."

"If you have any other questions don't hesitate to call." Jiraiya says.

"I appreciate it." Hiashi says as he leaves the room.

Hiashi heads down an empty hallway. Skinhead stands at a locker, prying it open with a large screw driver. He hears Hiashi coming and stuffs the screw driver down the front of his jacket. To avoid a problem, like the one he had with Neji and Tenten earlier, Skinhead takes the immediate offensive position. He turns to Hiashi as he comes down the hall.

"Excuse me sir. Can I see your hall pass?"

Hiashi is surprised at the request. "I don't have a pass. I'm a parent, I was seeing Mr. Jiraiya. I'm on my way out."

"Please don't think me rude, sir, but we have limited access to these hallways to students and authorized persons only. You have no idea how many unsavory types try to gain entry to the school to prey on the youngsters. They bring in contraband, controlled substances, obscene rock 'n roll lyrics. I'm telling you sir; it's like wolves running free in a hen house." Skinhead says.

"I'm heading right out." Hiashi says

"I'm sure you are sir. You have an honest face and an overall honorable body shape. I'm just alerting you to the rules. From a concerned student to a concerned parent."

"Boy, I got two kids at home who I wish had your attitude." Hiashi says

"It's refreshing isn't it?" Skinhead says

"Very, thanks" Hiashi nodes and continues on his way. Skinhead waits a beat and returns to the locker.

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Neji's wearing paint-splattered jeans and a T-shirt. He's sitting on the back of a chair, studying the canvas he's working on. He's holding a paint brush in his teeth; it's after school, very late. He hears talking in the hallway. He looks out the door.

Sasuke and a sophomore girl, Ino, are talking in the hallway. Neji studies the situation, and listens carefully.

Ino's back is to the lockers. Sasuke is standing in front o her, leaning forward, resting his elbow on the locker. Engulfing her. She's completely under his spell. He's older, he's richer, he's handsome, he's popular, and he's dangerous.

"I want you to stay close but not too close. You back off when I say, okay?" Sasuke says

She nods, yes.

"It'll get good." Sasuke continues

Ino nods again, he gives her a gentle kiss.

"Both your parents' wok?" he asks

She nodes

"Good, maybe I'll come over after school on day this week."

Sakura walks down the hall, and catches the tail end of Ino and Sasuke's kiss. Sasuke pulls back from her; he looks down the hall to see Sakura looking at him. He looks at her. She runs back down the hall. Sasuke smiles. He starts towards Sakura with his arms outspread.

She turns to her locker and opens it. She's angry and hurt. Sasuke approaches her, acting as if he's done nothing wrong.

"You wanna go to your place later?" he asks

Sakura glares at him, throws her books into her locker and grabs her coat.

"What's wrong?" he asks

Sakura tries to get away, but he blocks her way "Do you mind?" she says

"Yes I do. I want to know what's wrong?" he says

Sakura doesn't respond.

"Ino?" Sasuke say

"I' impress, you asked her name." Sakura spits.

"She's a friend of my little sister. Her brother was in a pretty serious car accident, she's a little upset."

Sakura glares at him. She's never been good at holding up her side of an argument with Sasuke. But she didn't remember him saying anything about a little sister…

"I'm waiting for you. I know your coming, why would I be trying to date another girl? It makes no sense at all." He says

Sakura backs down a bit. His charming good logic leaves her without an immediate counter.

"How can you be so beautiful and so insecure at the same time?

In lieu of something to say, she holds her look on him.

"Trust is the basis of any relationship. I trust you." He says and kisses her on the forehead. "I'll drive you home."

He point to the ring on his finger. He points to her, takes it off, takes her hand, and slips it onto her finger. He kisses her again. She doesn't say yes, but she doesn't say no. Sasuke takes the answer as yes.

"I'll get the car and meet you in the front."

He heads down the hallway. In the direction Ino went. Sakura looks at the floor and sighs angrily. She's upset with herself. She wants to bust him in the act, but she can't. She senses she's being watched, and turns.

Neji is standing in an open doorway looking at her. She feels uncomfortable, and wonders if he over heard the conversation. She'd rather keep her acquiescence to Sasuke a secret. She leaves quickly.

He watches the empty doorway for a long time. He picks up his brush, dips it in a jar of turpentine and cleans it on his work shirt. Neji is done for the day. He lays the brush out, peels off the shirt and looks at the canvas. An under-painting. A sketchy, incomplete, but very good.

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A clean, modern local service station, in the good part of town. The lights are on in the office and repair bay. Neji is in the repair bay working on a Jaguar. Tenten is sitting on a work bench, playing with a kunai.

"How's it feel to stand under an old Jaguar?" Tenten asks

"About the same as standing under an old Ford. Dirty and hot." He says as he works

As Tenten taps her kunai around the work bench, she hits Neji's sketch book. She throws him a look and opens the book.

"You wanna stand under it?" Neji asks

She leafs through the book and the sketches of Sakura. She finds the tattered photo. She looks at Neji; he flips a tool into the box, still not noticing yet. She puts the photo back and closes the book.

"Are you calling out for food?" she asks

"No." he answers, and he looks into the tool box. "You can call if you want."

"You have any money?" she asks

"Yeah,"

"If I get hungry, I'll call." She says.

"Don't you ever eat at home?" he asks

"I don't like to eat alone." She says as she looks into the tool box.

"Where's your mom?" Neji asks

"Which way is the wind blowing?" Tenten leans back and abruptly changes the subject. "If you wanted to, you could blow every guy in this feeble town out of the water. From a female popularity, sexual relationship standpoint."

Neji looks at her; he doesn't understand what she means. "I'm not interested in blowing anyone out of the water."

"Yeah?" she says

"Yeah,"

"So what's the deal with Sakura Haruno?"

Neji pauses from his work. She's hit something. He continues.

"I know your thinking about her." Tenten says as she looks down.

"Wrong." Says Neji

"We've been friend for too long to bullshit each other. I know when something is going one inside of you. And I know Sakura Haruno is on your mind." She looks up "You've always been n your own. I like you because you don't follow everybody. You're not sheep. You don't sell your soul to belong. And it's scary to me that you might change that."

"Nothing is changing," Neji says

"Look at me in the eye and tell me you don't think about Sakura Haruno."

Neji turns to her. "So what if I do? What do you care?"

"Oh, come on. Your better then her." Tenten scoffs "She's a major part of everything you don't believe in."

"She's not that much different." Neji says

"Yeah? Who's been lying to you? She's worse then different. She crossed town to belong to the lowest of the low. If that's the kind of person who inspires you, you've got a problem!" Tenten says

"You sound a little jealous." Neji says

Exactly. Tenten is stunned that he nailed her feelings and is obliged to deny. "Of what? Her? Yeah right."

"You're afraid that if I went out with Sakura, we couldn't be friends." Neji says

"That would be entirely my choice and I'm not worried about it because, regardless of what I say, you're too internal to open up and ask her out, so why don't we changed the subject?" she says

A bell rings in the station. Neji flips his wrench into the tool box. "You brought it up."

"Yeah, and I brought it up because I care about you. She doesn't. She has one thing on her mind and you don't make enough of it to matter to her. I rest my case." Tenten says

Neji wipes his hands on his jeans and leaves the station.

"Speak of the she-devil," Tenten says, as the tow go out to the gas pumps.

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I hope you like it, I'll try and update soon. I'm really sorry that I haven't been so good with this story, but maybe if you review then I'll make my update quick.

Please review!


	4. Chapter 4

**Sorry for another late update, but I got a reviewer that reminded me about the story. So I'm writing this chapter for them, because I can't make them wait for long. Thanks again, and please review!**

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The black Corvette's parked at the pumps. Sasuke and Sakura sit inside. Neji walks out of the repair bay. His pace slows as he recognizes Sakura. Sasuke sees Neji and Sakura looks at him. Sasuke honks the horn and holds it for several long seconds. Neji isn't amused, and a hard cold look passes over his face. He walks around the front of the Corvette.

"Twenty dollars, super unleaded." Sasuke pauses, with a cocky smile "Check the oil."

Sasuke reaches under the dash and pops the hood. Neji steps back to the pump and removes the hose. He uncaps the tank and shoves the nozzle in.

"Be nice, or I'll make you check the tires." Sasuke replies.

Neji sighs with disgust. He looks at Sakura, but she avoids his eyes.

"So is this what you do for a living?" Sasuke asks

Neji looks at him, but says nothing. He just walks back to the front of the car and opens the hood. "You want to cut the engine?"

"My pleasure," Sasuke says. He turns off the engine and Neji leans into the engine cavity and looks at the dipstick. He finds it and pulls it out, the horn blows.

"Sorry about that, my hand slipped." Sasuke laughs

Neji shakes his head at the cheap trick. Sakura isn't amused by Sasuke's cruelty.

"Why don't you cut it out?" she says

"Why don't you mind your own business?" he says

Tenten slides down off the bench and walks out to the door. From there she looks out. Neji's checking the oil, Sasuke and Sakura are talking. Neji slams the hood shut and goes back to the pump. Tenten's interest in the situation increases. Neji is watching the pump meter.

"You like looking at my girlfriend?" Sasuke says. Neji glares at him, and Sakura gives him ice. "What he likes looking at you!"

"Shut up Sasuke." She says

Neji removes the nozzle from the tank. Sakura shoots him a look. After putting the hose back Neji looks at Sakura. It's a serious look, a look the gives her more questions then answers.

"I'd recommend you keep your eyes off my girl." He starts the engine, and Neji gives him a fake smirk. He's not frightened by Sasuke's intended threat. Sasuke hold a twenty between his index finger and his middle finger, Neji takes it. Sasuke slams the car into gear and screams out of the station. Neji watches them go, before folding the twenty and putting it in his pocket. He reaches into his back pocket and pulls Sasuke's dipstick out. He tosses it into the trash barrel and walks back to the repair bay. Looking at the pump it reads $8.00. Neji's only given him ten dollars worth of gas.

Tenten's seen everything. She'd like to kill Sasuke and possible Sakura too. Neji walks in, and goes back to his work.

"Neji, I watched that, it was sick. If that doesn't show the real Sakura Haruno, then I don't know what does."

Neji picks up his tools and goes back under the jaguar. Tenten watches him, and then turns up the radio and sits back on the bench.

-

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The school tennis courts, girls' gym. The bell rings and the instructor blows a whistle, waving the girls in.

Sasuke's car pulls up fast and stops. Sakura gets out, pulling a tennis racket from the car. She hurries up the steps onto the courts. Sasuke pulls away. Sakura's class is heading back to school, she hurries to join them. She hopes to avoid detection, rushing into the crowd and quickly adjusting to their gait.

Neji and half a dozen downtown boys are sitting on the bleachers. Neji sits up as he sees Sakura join her gym class. He sees the instructor cut across the courts and call the Sakura.

"Sakura Haruno?"

Sakura slows and stops. She knows she's caught. She curses under her breath. Neji leans over the side to watch and listen.

The teacher catches up to Sakura. "Excusing yourself from class to leave grounds with the boy with the hot cars buys you two weeks of morning detention.

"I was just talking to him," Sakura says

"If all you wanted was to talk then you could have done it with out leaving school.

"What are you saying, Kakashi sensei?"

"Nothing that hasn't been said before," He says. Sakura holds her glare on her teacher. "Get inside."

Sakura turns angrily and heads for the school.

Neji's seen and heard everything. A smirk spreads across his face as an idea streaks through his brain.

-

A hand grabs it, pulls. The fir alarm goes off.

-

The break off dawn and Neji is standing in the doorway. A puzzled worried look on his face. He scans the room. It's filled with the meanest, most wanted citizens of the school. They look at the door. Neji is stunned, not a female face in the room. No Sakura Haruno.

In the hallway Sakura is talking with a male teacher. He's a middle aged goof; you may remember him from earlier. The same man Neji's Uncle talked too a few days ago. He's clearly appreciative of Sakura's charms.

"It's really sweet of you to not make me sit in there. It's all guys, I'd feel weird." She says

"I suppose it wouldn't hurt if you served your detention in my office." Jiraiya says.

"Actually, I have a better idea. What if I didn't serve my detention at all? What if I swore I wouldn't do it again?"

The teacher is unable to resist. He sighs "We'll keep it a secret between you and me."

"You're incredibly nice, and I like the way you wear you hair like that."

"Really?" Jiraiya asks

She nods, and he gives her a big goofy smile. She leaves and he looks at his hair in a chrome fire extinguisher.

-

Neji is sitting with the beasts. The boy, Kiba, that Neji confronted earlier is sitting next to him.

"Serves you right, kid." Kiba says

"Thanks," Neji replies

"My pleasure."

They look at each other; it's a tense stand off. A long exchange of looks that could easily end badly.

-

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A small, dreary bungalow badly in need of pain, care and repair. Sandwiched between freeway and refinery. Neji and Tenten are sitting on the porch. Semi-conscious hound is sprawled out on the sidewalk below the porch. Tenten is playing with a throwing star.

"If you don't figure out your stuff pretty soon, it's going to be too embarrassing to be your friend." She looks over at him "What kind of moron _gives _himself two weeks of detention?"

Neji looks away, he embarrassed enough.

"You familiar with road runner cartoon? Beep! Beep!" she says, a smirk on her lips.

"I really don't need insults." Neji says

"You're going to hell in a hand basket. Sakura Haruno doesn't know you, doesn't care about you. You're trying to do the impossible." She is trying the impossible too. "How many times do I have to listen to myself tell you this?"

Neji holds a stare on her. "You know what kind of guy Sasuke is?"

"Handsome, rich, popular, muscular, hot, happening and capable of reducing your head to a crimson stain on the wall."

With a bitter chuckle Neji replies "You know how to ferret-out the dark and ugly, don't you?"

"I deal in reality. Sometimes it's rank and raw. It hurts, I know." She pauses "The lifestyle I've chosen for myself opens me up to plenty of pain, if you think girls give you grief, consider what they tell me. You can always pop a guy, but with girls you just have to grin and bear it."

"Sasuke's a jerk. He screws around and treats her like trash." Neji says, stubborn and unmoving.

"An obviously she likes it. You're losing it; and when it's lost, all you are is a loser." She says

"You have no idea how I feel, so why don't you just butt-out of it?" Neji spits

"I know how you feel," Tenten says back

"Yeah? You've been in love?" he asks

"There's a lot of things you don't know about me."

With a smile, Neji continues "Who've you ever been in love with?"

Tenten sits up straight, and turns defensive. She's exposed too many secrets, too many feelings.

"You want to abuse yourself, then be my guest." She says

She slides off the bench, slips the throwing star into her pouch and wipes the dust from her pants.

"Hey, Tenten, nothing ventured nothing gained, right?" he says

"Hey, Neji, once a fool always a fool, right?" she says

She walks into the house and Neji watches her go.

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**I hope you liked that, please review!**


	5. Chapter 5

**This story is on its way to be continued! Yay! Sorry for all the late updates, but I had too much writers block. Hope you like this chapter!!**

**Oh, and I should warn you, Tenten gets into an odd conversation with Neji later on, so please don't yell at me because it helps the story go on…**

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She's sitting on the front porch with her a neighbor's little boy in her lap, bouncing on her leg, playing with him. Neji stands across the street looking at her. As Sakura plays with the bay, she notices something, and she looks up. She sees him standing, resting against the lamppost. And she's curious as to why he is watching her. Although she is uncomfortable she gets up with the baby, takes his hand and waves it at Neji. Neji smiles a bit, and she goes inside. Neji watches for a moment more and continues on his way home.

-

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Neji is in detention with the junior criminals. He's working in his sketchbook. Kiba sits next to him, scratching the desk with a pocket knife. The fine hand of Neji creating, and the crude paws of Kiba destroying. Kiba looks up at Neji. Neji looks at Kiba. Neji nods a greeting. Kiba stared at him for a moment and then glances down at Neji's sketchbook. Neji tips it towards Kiba so that he can see what he was drawing. Kiba grabs the desk top and rips the far side from the frame. He then tilts it towards Neji so that he can see his work. Neji nods in a reluctant approval.

-

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In the girls' locker room, Tenten has just come from her shower. She's wearing a T-shirt and drying her hair with a towel. Something catches her eye. Sakura Haruno, in only bra and panties, combs her hair. Tenten scowls as it seems that Sakura is in the perfect light, the perfect pose. She looks like she's in a French lingerie commercial.

She looks Sakura up and down, then looks at her own body. The bust inside a white T-shirt, the cure of her boyish hips, her round little belly. She makes, to her mind, a disheartening comparison. It's a girls' body standing up to a woman's. She looks back to Sakura. Sakura turns her head and combs her hair more. Oh how envious Tenten is.

She stands in a t-shirt and boy's slim boxers. A senior girl is standing across the isle from Tenten with a towel wrapped around her. She looks at Tenten.

"Are those boy's underpants?"

Sakura turns and looks at Tenten. She smiles as she sees the boy's underwear.

"Yeah. So?" Tenten says, picking a needle from a collection in her locker. Sakura leaves quickly.

"So I never saw a girl wear boy's underwear" the senior says

Tenten twirls the needle like a baton. "You ever see a girl with a needle shoved up her nose?"

There is a long pause.

"Is that some sort of threat?"

"No, that's some kind of warning." Tenten smirks.

The girl clicks her tongue and heads to the showers, leaving Tenten to herself. She tucks the T-shirt into the boxers, and turns to looks at herself in the mirror. She strikes a feminine pose. It doesn't work for her.

"No way," she says

-

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-

Big, wide, and confusing. Friday on the boulevard. An endless procession of cars, shiny, custom extensions of their owners' fantasy perceptions of themselves. A massive street party. Not unlike Westwood on a Saturday night in summer or Palm Springs on Easter Break. Music is blowing from windows and backs of trucks. Clothes show on the sidewalks, mating rituals, lookers and takers.

Neji is sitting on the back of a bus bench. He's serious and determined. In the midst of, but apart from, the action. Across the street Sasuke's crowd is dominating the curb for half a block. Sasuke is at his car with Ino.

Tenten comes up from behind Neji. She climbs up on the back of the bench too.

"Come on, lost soul, we're gonna miss the show." She says

"I don't think I'll go." He says

Tenten looks across the street. She sees Sasuke and the social action. She nods.

"I'm not gonna play dumb anymore. I know what you're hanging around for. Sakura Haruno. I've been contemplating the matter and I've come up with a conclusion. You interested?" Tenten said

"No,"

"Good, I'll tell you anyway. I am, biologically speaking, a babe. I have all the primary female body parts, and as far as I know, they're functional." She said

"What are you getting at?" Neji asked

Tenten clears her throat, hesitating as she tries to build up the courage. She searches for the right words.

"Don't take this as a come on, because it's not. It's totally operational." She says "You are my closest personal friend, and if this jive with Sakura Haruno has anything to do with sex…" with a nervous pause, she looks away "…We could always…you know, maybe we could…work something out, maybe."

Neji is flabbergasted at Tenten's intimate proposal. While the suggestion is bizarre, it's also sincere and obviously an enormous gesture. Neji is strangely touched and deeply appreciates it.

"It's not supposed to be like that. I appreciate the offer, but it's not right. This isn't about sex, Tenten" Neji says

Tenten shrugs off the decline "Yeah, Yeah, forget it. You're right, it'd be…"

"Not good," he finishes

"Yeah, forget it." She looks down, unnoticed by him.

There is an uncomfortable pause.

"I thought, as a friend, it was only proper that I offer." Tenten adds

"Thanks,"

Another pause,

"Do you really have to do this?" Tenten asks

"Yeah," Neji smiles, and Tenten slaps him on the back.

"You need some gum?" she asks

Patting his pocket, Neji replies "I'm covered,"

Tenten stands and pulls a kunai out of her belt. She salutes Neji with it and leaves, walking down the middle of an empty road with her hands swaying at her sides. He watches her with a found smile.

Safely on the sidewalk, Sakura and Hinata cruise down the street. Sasuke sits in his car with Ino. His back is to Sakura and Hinata as they approach. Sakura sees Sasuke and Ino in the car and pales at the sickening reprise of a scene she's already been through.

Neji sees Sakura and stands, his gaze shifting to Sasuke.

Tenten leans against a lamppost far down the road, safe under the shadow of the broken bulb. She watches Neji, biting her lip in dread anticipation.

Sakura approaches Sasuke, and he sees her. He sits with a smirk. Ino is startled, and shows it, badly. Sakura glares daggers at Sasuke. It's embarrassing and humiliating. Sasuke addresses Ino.

"Bye,"

Ino hesitates for a moment. Sasuke brushes her away with a pleasant wave.

"Yeah," she looks to Sakura, being catty "Bye," She gives Sasuke an adoring smile as she heads off.

"Sasuke, I've had enough of this. If you were more of a person, there might be enough for two girls, but you're not."

"Yeah, well, this jealousy crap's getting a little tedious."

"You won't have to take it anymore."

"What's that suppose to mean?"

She tries to get around him, but he blocks her.

"Get out of my way!" she says

"Not until we straighten this out." He says

"That won't work anymore Sasuke."

"You wanna walk out on me, where are you gonna go?" he asks

"Sakura?" Neji says

Sakura turns around, Sasuke looks past her. Across the street, Neji stands, alone and very small.

"You got a minute?" Neji asks

Sakura is startled to see Neji. The last person she need right now. Sasuke turns to see Neji, with instant anger. Sakura looks at Sasuke, then to Hinata. A notion strikes her.

Hinata sees Sakura, and doesn't like the situation. Not with Sasuke and certainly not with Neji. The only out come, in her mind, is a bad one.

"Excuse me," Sakura says with a sly smile across her face.

Sakura heads for Neji. He stands his ground, firm and strong. Quickly Sakura weaves her way through traffic. As she approaches, thoughts run through his mind of what he wants to say to her. Sakura keeps coming. When she reaches him there is an uncomfortable pause.

"Hi," Neji says

"Hi, what do you want?" Sakura asks as she turns to look at Hinata and Sasuke with a crowd gathering behind them. She turns back to Neji.

"Are you in a hurry?" Neji asks

"Sort of, what do you want?" she asks again.

"I was going to ask you if you want to go out, but if it's too difficult…"

"You want to ask me out?"

"I think that's what I said." He comments.

Sakura stares at him, with a bit of a smile. She looks back to the others. Behind Hinata and Sasuke a growing crowd watches the conversation. Hinata is nervous; she shoots a glance at Sasuke. His temper is simmering.

Sakura turns back to Neji, and their conversation continues. After a moment she walks away, Neji does the same in a different direction. Slowly he disappears in the side walk traffic.

Sasuke pushes off his car as Sakura returns. He'd like to kill her, but Hinata steps forward to greet Sakura.

"Wh-what did h-he w-want?" she stutters

Looking at Sasuke, Sakura replies "he asked me out."

Hinata covers her mouth in shock, as do most of the people in the crowd. Everybody but Sasuke.

"What did you say?" he asks

She looks at Sasuke, at his friends, then at Hinata "I said yes,"

Sakura steps back onto the sidewalk and slips into the crowd. Hinata looks at Sasuke, he's extremely mad. She tries to smile.

"She's j-just ma-mad." She hurries to join Sakura.

-

Sakura walks quickly through the crowds. Soon Hinata catches up.

"Ar-are you c-crazy" she says

"Maybe,"

"Go back to Sa-sasuke and s-straighten it o-out."

Sakura stops, and glares at Hinata. "It's okay for him to do that to me, but not for me to do it to him?"

"I-it's not o-okay. It's just the w-way it is. If y-you want to d-drop him, don't do it l-like thi-this."

"Can you drive me home?" Sakura asks

"He's r-really m-mad, Sakura. I-it's s-scary."

"I'll walk."

Sakura walks on, leaving Hinata behind. Hinata sighs with defeat and follows.

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**I hope you liked it, please leave a review! FLAMES ACCEPTED! **


	6. Chapter 6

**Sorry for another late update, but I can't make any excuses. I was too lazy to work on this…Anyway, I hope you enjoy this installment! Now on to chapter 6!**

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Recap:

"Wh-what did h-he w-want?" she stutters

Looking at Sasuke, Sakura replies "He asked me out."

Hinata covers her mouth in shock, as do most of the people in the crowd. Everybody but Sasuke.

"What did you say?" he asks

She looks at Sasuke, at his friends, then at Hinata "I said yes,"

Sakura steps back onto the sidewalk and slips into the crowd. Hinata looks at Sasuke, he's extremely mad. She tries to smile.

"She's j-just ma-mad." She hurries to join Sakura.

Sakura walks quickly through the crowds. Soon Hinata catches up.

"Ar-are you c-crazy" she says

"Maybe,"

"Go back to Sa-sasuke and s-straighten it o-out."

Sakura stops, and glares at Hinata. "It's okay for him to do that to me, but not for me to do it to him?"

"I-it's not o-okay. It's just the w-way it is. If y-you want to d-drop him, don't do it l-like thi-this."

"Can you drive me home?" Sakura asks

"He's r-really m-mad, Sakura. I-it's s-scary."

"I'll walk."

Sakura walks on, leaving Hinata behind. Hinata sighs with defeat and follows.

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**Chapter 6**

Sasuke hasn't moved. He's staring across the street, his friends watching and waiting patiently for him to react. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a cigarette, putting it in his mouth and lighting it. He takes a long drag and exhales sharply. A friend breaks the silence.

"What do you want to do about this?"

Sasuke pushes Naruto aside and gets in his car. He fires up the engine and drives away without looking back or answering the question asked.

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At the Hyyuga compound on a Sunday morning, they enjoy a big breakfast. Hiashi sits, suspicious of something and chewing his food slowly. Neji's aunt keeps taking curious glances between faces as she takes small careful bites. Hanabi sits staring at them all, very confused. Hinata's expression is similar to Hanabi's, but in a much more subtle way. Neji is eating like nothing is wrong, a small- but noticable- smile on his lips. He looks up.

"What?"

Hiashi squints, and doesn't understand. "Why are you smiling?"

Neji sees his aunt smile. "What difference does it make? I like it."

Hiashi looks to his wife then back to Neji "Did you do something to the car?"

"I wasn't aware that I was smiling. If it bothers you, I won't do it."

Hiashi isn't convinced. "You haven't smiled in a while. I was just curious about the change."

"I haven't had much to smile about." Neji says, looking at his aunt.

She forces a smile "You have a nice smile."

Neji holds his small smile "Thank you,"

Hanabi's held her tounge. She's been staring at Neji the whole time, studying the change in him, and finally she speaks.

"This isn't true. I can't be. It has to be the most hilarious rumor ever floated right?"

Neji doesn't respond. He just smiles.

"What are you talking about?" his aunt asks.

"Okay, I'm in town last night and I hear everybody saying that Neji asked a girl out."

"What?"

"Check it out, she's scandalously popular, insanely beautiful and obviously in the middle of some emotional shoot-out consent to date the human ice cube." She turns to Neji "What'd you do to her? Threaten her life?"

"I just asked her out." Neji says.

"Her boyfriend's a man, for Christ's sake! He extensively easy on the eyes, he's a total buck and you're…you're Neji." Hanabi says

"Is she nice, Neji?" his aunt asks

"Mother, the girl is _sex _." Hanabi interrupts.

"Hanabi!"

"I'm glad you can take the time to think about girls," Hiashi says

The smile on Neji's face fades as the old subject of college comes up again.

"Between the girls and your art kick, you don't have time for anything important. I'll be dead and buried before you get off your butt and apply for college,"

"Ease up, dad. Any fool can get into college. Only a precious few can say the same about Sakura Haruno." Hanabi adds.

The whole table stares at her…

"Am I wrong?" she asks

-

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In the detention room, the beasts are all armed with sketch pads and charcoal. Neji is working on his pad, when Kiba leans over.

"This is an outstanding idea. Most of the goons have little or no mode of creative expression."

Neji gives him a smirk.

"Talent's a terrible thing to waste," Kiba says as he holds up his pad. "Check it out," Neji looks. A grotesque sketch of a skull with live eyeballs sits on the paper. Neji nods a reluctant approval "This is what my girl friend would look like with no skin,"

Neji nods.

"While we're on the topic of the double breasted party machine, congratulations on your recent coup."

Neji smiles, partly out of pride, partly out of descriptives. "You know about Sakura Haruno?"

"What ? You think I live in here? I got a personal life. How'd you swing that one? She's dangerous." Kiba rants

"I don't know, Kiba, I asked her out, and she just said yes."

"What do you suppose she sees in you? No offense, of course."

"I guess I'll find out soon or later."

"You're a good man. Sorry about giving you so much grief over the years." Kiba says after a pause "If you'd just popped one time, I would have left you alone." He leans in a whispers "My bark is bigger then my bite." He gives Neji a big smile. "You need anything, you let me know."

"I will," Neji says

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Tenten is sitting with a lazy looking boy. Hair tied in a ponytail, and eyes half lided with sleep. He clearly doesn't really care to be here at the moment, but doesn't seem to mind sitting next to Tenten. Both Tenten and Shikamaru sit on a wall.

"You don't want me to put my arm around you, right?" he asks

Tenten takes a glance at him "No that's okay, thanks." She looks down the hall, and Shikamaru shrugs.

"Do I have to say anything?" he asks

"No, just sit and wait until I tell you what to do." Tenten comments

"You don't have a boyfriend right?" Shikamaru asks

"No,"

"You know some of the guys, think you're confused. But I know that isn't true. You can't be confused if you're hanging out with Neji so much." He says "Definitly not with that look you have when you're with him."

"What?!" she turns to him with winkles on her forehead.

"He's to blind to see that you are completely infatuated with him." His eyes are closed; he is in a lax position on the wall. "You couldn't possibly be around him without-"

"This is 1987. A girl can act however she wants with whoever she wants."

"I know, but not quite when they are head over heels with their companion." He sighs

She sighs too, and looks back down the hall. She sits up when something catches her eye. Neji crosses the courtyard. She poses again, leaning against Shikamaru. "Okay, now look at me like you like me."

"That will be absolutely no problem," he sighs and sits up as well.

Neji walks up to them "Hi,"

"Hey, Neji, what's up?" Tenten asks, waiting for a reaction. "Do you know Shikamaru?"

"No," Neji answers.

He holds out his hand. Shikamaru looks at Tenten, she gives him a glare and he shakes Neji's hand.

"A pleasure," Shikamaru says

"Yeah," Neji turns to Tenten "Are you busy?"

"Just sitting here with Shikamaru, why?"

"I need to borrow your car. If you had something to do, I'd swing back in a while and pick you up."

"Where're are you going?" she asks

"I want to give Sakura a ride home."

Not the answer she wants to hear. Shikamaru stick his hand out.

"By the way, congratulations; she's smokin'."

Neji shakes his hand, and Tenten fishes her keys out of her pocket. She flips them to Neji.

"I'd appreciate a couple of bucks for gas."

Neji is surprised by the remark. He doesn't mind paying his way, it's the manner in which she asked. He nods.

"About an hour?" he says

"Fine, It's just time, not like it means anything."

Neji nods again. He's confused by her attitude. He backs away and goes to her car. Tenten slides away from Shikamaru.

"You gotta wait around for an hour?" he asks

She nods.

"Do you know how much damage we could do in an hour?" he says

She chuckles a bit, a small smile coming to her lips for a moment "Now it the perfect time to start pretending that you like me."

"Yeah I thought so, too." He laughs. "This wasn't as much of a drag as I thought it would be. If you need to do it again, I wouldn't mind helping you out."

"Thanks," she nods "I'll see you later," she turns and walks away.

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**I hope you like this chapter. PLEASE REVIEW, FLAMES ACCEPTED!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Sorry for another late update…I own no Some kind of Wonderful (movie edition) or Naruto.**

**Recap:**

He holds out his hand. Shikamaru looks at Tenten, she gives him a glare and he shakes Neji's hand.

"A pleasure," Shikamaru says

"Yeah," Neji turns to Tenten "Are you busy?"

"Just sitting here with Shikamaru, why?"

"I need to borrow your car. If you had something to do, I'd swing back in a while and pick you up."

"Where're are you going?" she asks

"I want to give Sakura a ride home."

Not the answer she wants to hear. Shikamaru stick his hand out.

"By the way, congratulations; she's smokin'."

Neji shakes his hand, and Tenten fishes her keys out of her pocket. She flips them to Neji.

"I'd appreciate a couple of bucks for gas."

Neji is surprised by the remark. He doesn't mind paying his way; it's the manner in which she asked. He nods.

"About an hour?" he says

"Fine, It's just time, not like it means anything."

Neji nods again. He's confused by her attitude. He backs away and goes to her car. Tenten slides away from Shikamaru.

"You gotta wait around for an hour?" he asks

She nods.

"Do you know how much damage we could do in an hour?" he says

She chuckles a bit, a small smile coming to her lips for a moment "Now it the perfect time to start pretending that you like me."

"Yeah I thought so, too." He laughs. "This wasn't as much of a drag as I thought it would be. If you need to do it again, I wouldn't mind helping you out."

"Thanks," she nods "I'll see you later," she turns and walks away.

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Chapter 7

Neji is sitting outside, waiting. Sakura and Ino exit the school, Neji stands up as they pass.

"Sakura?"

Sakura and Ino stopped, and look back.

"Can I give you a ride home?" he asks

Sakura looks at Ino. She'd love to laugh, but she knows better.

"I was going home with Ino. Do you know each other?" Sakura asks

Neji shakes his head, and offers his hand. Ino hesitates, but after looking to Sakura takes it and shakes it back.

"Hi," Neji says

"Hi," Ino replies

Neji takes back his hand "I thought maybe we could talk."

"Well I was…" Sakura pauses "Why don't you call me?"

"Yeah, okay." Neji begins

Sakura feels terribly sorry for him. Neji is melting in the presence of two girls. Ino intercedes.

"Why don't you go with him?" Ino talks to Sakura, giving her a look close to a glare.

Sakura glares daggers back at her. Neji waits for an answer, and studies Sakura Ino's movements. They are nothing like Tenten. He finds himself comparing the way that the two girls in front of him hold their books and the way they stand, to the way Tenten (when she has them) props her books against her hip, and puts most of her weight on her left leg when waiting for something, usually with some kind of look on her face. He watches as Ino and Sakura converse with their books clutched to their chests, and their knees locked. Sakura looks up at him and he smiles with dread.

"Where're you parked?"

Neji smiles with relief.

"I'll pull around." He heads away, and Sakura turns back to Ino.

"Thanks a lot!"

"He's given you the perfect opportunity to back out. He wants to talk. Tell him it's over and you're back with Sasuke."

"I'm not back with Sasuke."

"You want to tell him the truth?! You want to tell him that you used him, Forehead?!" Ino asks

"I didn't use him, Ino-pig!"

"Oh really? You used him to get away from Sasuke."

"It wasn't deliberate. It just happened. I was mad and he stepped in. It was just bad circumstances." Sakura looks down.

"Regardless, the longer you wait to kill it, the worse it's gonna be. He's completely deluded. Unless of course, you're interested in him?"

Sakura shoves Ino, making Ino laugh.

-

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-

Neji sits in the driver's seat of Tenten's car. The parking lot is empty, and Neji is alone. The starter's screaming, the engine won't turn over. Neji sighs a defeated one, and looks down at the steering wheel.

"Shit, Tenten…" he looks into the car, the gas gauge in stuck on empty.

He looks off back to where Sakura should be waiting. She's gone. Given up on waiting and walking down the lot, and to where Neji and Tenten's car sit.

"The car won't start." He says

Sakura sighs, and turns and yells to stop a Suzuki Samurai pulling out of the lot.

"Ino!" She waves her arms, and the car stops, reverses and pulls around.

Neji watches as Ino returns for Sakura. He's lost. Tried and Failed.

Sakura gets in the front. She looks in the car, then back at Neji. She waves him over. He smirks, flips the keys on the seat and heads for the Samurai.

Sasuke is in his car, watching. From his point of view he sees Neji climb into the seat of the car. His blood boils, and he wants blood.

-

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-

Ino and Sakura are in the front. Neji is in the jump seat. The music is playing and the windows are rolled all the way down. Ino sneaks a look at Sakura, who returns it. Ino then looks back at Neji in the rearview mirror.

"Where are we going?" she asks

"Home," he says

"Where's that?"

"D Street,"

There's a long uncomfortable pause. Neji swallows and looks at Sakura. She's wearing diamond stud earrings. He thinks it's odd that Sakura's wearing diamonds. Considering where she lives, he leans forward.

"Nice earrings." He says

Sakura turns around to face Neji. An embarrassed smile stuck on her lips. "They're not mine. I just barrowed them from Ino." With another embarrassed smile she turns back around.

Ino looks at Sakura and motions to Neji. She mouths "Tell Him." Sakura sneaks a look around to the back seat. She returns and looks back at Ino. She shakes her head slightly. Ino urges her on with a stern look.

"Sakura? Don't you want to say something to…" a quick glance at Neji "What's your name again?"

"Neji."

Sakura gives Ino a cold look. Neji watches the back of the two girl's heads. He's cautious and suspicious. He's feeling supremely put down. Sakura turns in the seat and looks at him. He looks back at her.

"You want to forget about the date. Right?" he asks

Sakura is startled that he knows. Little changes in Neji's expression, but his eyes plead for the truth. Ino is disgusted with Sakura. She shifts her eyes to the rearview mirror. Sakura back pedals a bit.

"It you want out, I'll understand." Sakura says.

Neji shakes his head. "If I wanted out, I wouldn't have asked you in the first place. I don't want out, do you?"

She can't say it. All she can muster is a limp smile and she turns back.

-

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The car parks outside his house, and he gets out. Neji mumbles a thanks. Ino smiles obsequiously, replying with a sweet but forced "My pleasure." Sakura just smiles. Neji backs away from the car.

"I'll see you tomorrow."

He takes a few more backward steps. He back-walks until it's too stupid to do it anymore. Neji turns, stuffs his hands in his pockets and saunters up to his house.

Ino is angry with Sakura. Sakura turns her look from Neji to the footwell.

"That was swift. I gave you the perfect window to throw him out of, and you went limp.

Sakura is on the defensive "Maybe you can do that kind of thing, but I can't. Not in clod blood anyway."

"Then I guess you got a new boyfriend." Ino states.

Sakura looks at her angrily.

"He's too dim to catch a hint. If you don't tell him, he won't get it." She continues.

"So what if I go out with him once? It's not like the end of the world."

Sakura and Ino look at Neji's house.

-

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-

Neji is in the arch to the kitchen drinking from the orange juice carton. Hanabi walks in.

"Hey, I saw your girlfriend out in front."

Neji lowers the carton suspiciously. "Did she say anything to you?"

"That's for me to know and you to find out." She heads up the stairs after her words.

-

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Tenten is behind the wheel of her car. It's moving slowly, and she's trying to figure out what happened to Neji. A voice from a distance calls to her.

"How far are we going?" it says

"The nearest gas station!"

Still in the school parking lot, Shikamaru and Tenten struggle with her car. Tenten has enlisted the help of Shikamaru to push it.

"How far is that?" he asks

"Don't worry about it. You're young." She calls back.

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**Please review!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8 of "Some kind of Wonderful!" Sorry if you felt the wait was too long, and I hope you enjoy this chapter!**

**The word disclaimer should be enough…**

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The school is deserted. Neji is sitting on the back of a chair, studying a large piece of canvas. Music is playing in the background, dark and brooding. He has a paintbrush in his teeth. He's considering his work, plotting his next move. The music stops and Neji looks up.

Sasuke has turned to music off and is sitting on the edge of the table. He's very calm and at ease, as if nothing has happened between them.

"How are you doing?" he asks

"All right." Neji replies

"You nervous about something?"

"No. Are you?" Neji asks

"You look nervous, are you okay?" Sasuke continues

"I have no problem." Neji shakes his head

"You always come to school this early?" Sasuke asks

"Not always, you?"

"Never."

"So why today?" Neji asks

"I wanted to talk to you about something."

"About…?" Neji is a bit cautious.

With a big grin Sasuke begins. "I didn't come here to talk about art."

Neji doesn't reply. Sasuke smiles again and eases up. "

"I'm completely cool with the situation. The truth? I was looking for a way out of the thing with Sakura, and, weird as it is, you saved me a tough talk."

"I'm supposed to believe that right?" Neji looks on, eye brow raised.

"Why not? It's true. I don't want Sakura hating me. I don't want anybody hating me. So, I'd appreciate it if you'd do me a favor."

Neji waits cautiously again.

"I don't know where you guys are going Saturday, but if you could swing it, I'd like you to come by my place. I'm having some friends over. The parents are in Europe."

"You're inviting me to _your _house?" Neji says

"Yeah. I've invited a lot of people. Something wrong?"

"I don't know, you tell me." Neji replies

"Nothing wrong on my end. You got an inferiority complex or something?" he pauses "I don't know you all that well; I may not even like you if I get to know you. That's not the issue. I've known Sakura for a long time; I want to stay friends. And if it's too much to bring her over, forget it. I'm sorry I asked."

"Put yourself in my position. Maybe you'll understand why I don't think this sounds like a good idea." Neji says

"Put yourself in mine." Sasuke adds "I'm big enough to invite a former girlfriends and the guy who stole her from me to a party. You think all of this makes me look good? I've taken plenty of shit about it already."

"That's why I'm a little cautious of your motives." Neji says

""I'll buy that." Sasuke says "You want the plain truth?"

Neji shrugs. He's not so sure he'd recognize it.

"I have a lot of pride. And it's been damaged, and I don't like it. I can recover it, in my own mind at least, buy showing people whose opinions matter to me that you and me are friends. Then it's not like you stole Sakura from me. Bad blood makes me look like a fool. If we're friends, it's okay. I've traded off lots of girls to friends. That's acceptable. It's not like some stranger lifting Sakura off me."

"The logic's a little perverse." Neji comments

"Probably, but that's what it is. You tell anybody I had this conversation with you and I'll kick the shit out of you. That's a promise."

Sasuke slides off the table and grabs his bag. He heads for the door.

"It's a party. It's not the end of the world." Sasuke says. He starts out the door.

Neji has changed his mind. He wants to believe Sasuke.

"Sasuke?" Sasuke turns back into the room "You being straight with me?"

"At this point do you see a reason why I should be playing games?"

"I'll ask Sakura." Neji says after a pause.

"I already did. She's okay with it."

Neji thinks for a moment "I'll be there."

With a friendly smile Sasuke speaks "Good. It wouldn't be the weirdest thing in the world if you and I came out of this as friends."

Neji smiles back. A careful smile. "Yeah it would."

Sasuke gives Neji a big smile. Sincere as hell.

"See ya'," He swaggers out of the room.

-

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-

In the Girl's Gym a clan of volleyball girls are hanging around after class. Sakura is talking with some of her friends. Neji is watching the class. He feels that she is his now. He's comfortable and confident. A hint of a smile, he leaning on the door frame. He rolls back around the door to face away from the gym. His smile evaporates as he realizes he's being watched.

Tenten is at the door heading outside. She'd been watching him watch Sakura. She looks serious and… Slightly wounded?

Neji smiles. No change in Tenten.

"What's going on?" Neji asks

Tenten shrugs "First time in about two years you didn't have lunch with me. Is there a problem?"

Neji shakes his head, no. He feels a little guilty.

"Am I too weird to be around now that you're moving up?" Tenten asks

Neji doesn't particularly care for the tone. "I had something to do."

"Yeah. Something you never had to do in two years before? It's cool. I just wondered where you were."

"I was around." Neji says

"Yeah, okay." She raises a hand and exits. Neji waits a puzzled, sad beat before he turns back to the class.

-

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-

Ino's house is large. It's extremely extravagant and built with tremendous care. Her bedroom is a suit. Ino definitely has money. She sits on her bed, as Sakura is slouched in a chair.

"I recommend that you think twice before you make sacrifices for this jerk." Ino says

"What's that mean?"

"Don't let some misfit joker tear up your life. Nobody's very excited about this affair. They see you as guilty as he is. You know what the truth is?"

"From whose point of view?" Sakura asks

"Yours. You aren't a natural fit in all this. They don't have to let you belong. You could be on the other side of the world for all anybody really cares. You like being part of something. Don't kid yourself. It's better to be in than out." She pauses.

"All I'm saying is, you have one more year, why make it miserable? Just go along with things. We'll have a last good year and then we're outta here forever."

"I'm not making up with Sasuke." Sakura says

"Then just be friends. But agree that you have to blow the date. Okay? Right now he's humiliated. GO back, get this guy out of the way and then break up. Don't get him in a corner like this. Please?" Ino begs.

"I'm not afraid. So what if he's humiliated. So am I."

Ino shakes her head in frustration. "You're not in control like Sasuke is. One word from him, and your on ice. Neji'll live. I'm sure, deep in his heart, he probably thinks you gonna' back out anyway."

"If I back out, I'm giving into Sasuke." Sakura says

"Fine. Give in this once. Don't make this an issue. It's not worth it. If you keep the date, you lose everything."

"Including you?" Sakura asks

"I'd never say it to your face, but I don't know what I'll feel like if I'm frozen out. You won't either. Why risks everything for nothing?"

"It's not nothing. It's a matter of pride. If you can't understand that, I feel sorry for you." Sakura nods her head.

"You go through with this and I'll be feeling sorry for you." Ino adds.

There is something foreboding in the remark.

-

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-

Neji is sitting at a night club table alone. He's still riding his giant wave of delight. The place is loud and crowded with street people. A band plays on a small stage. Tenten walks though the club doorway. She's looking for Neji, a girl on a mission. She pushes her way through the place to Neji's table. She looks down at him, and he looks up at her. He raises a hand in greeting. Things between them are stiff and formal.

"Since when do your parents let you go clubbing on school nights?" Tenten asks

"I'm waiting for Sakura." Neji replies

"Here? She coming here? On a school night? Did I miss something; is there a new world order?"

"If you wanna knock me and make me feel bad, can you do it later?" Neji asks

"She said she'd meet you here?"

"Not in those words." He mumbles

"In any words?" Tenten asks

Neji shrugs off the question, for which he has no answer. Tenten slides into the booth.

"Maybe she doesn't have an ID?"

"Who doesn't have an ID?" Neji says

"Maybe she doesn't like you as much as you thought." Tenten suggests.

"Maybe,"

"Do you miss me Neji? Do you miss not being around me?"

"This isn't the third grade anymore, Ten."

Wistfully Tenten replies "I wish it was."

"It's not," Neji says again.

"I'm not upset about her. I'm upset about you. She's the same. You're the one who's changed."

"What's wrong with change." Neji asks

"I liked you better when you were a nothing."

"I wish you would take a few minutes out of your day to sit down and think about what this means to me." Neji says growing angry.

"What about what it means to me?" Tenten replies

"It means, you don't have a love-sick, depressed, boring friend anymore." Neji says not listening to her words.

"She doesn't love you. It's a joke. It's all a joke."

Neji scoffs at the remark. "Oh really?"

"I'd bet my hands on it." Tenten says, lifting her hands for emphasis.

"You don't want to make that bet." Neji shakes his head.

"Yeah, I do." Tenten says "I gotta split. This is too much agony for me. I've been thinking about you and me a lot lately and I came to a conclusions that I didn't want to deal with, but now that we talked, I can't hide it anymore." She takes a deep breath.

"I think we'll get along much better if we don't spend so much time together anymore."

"Why?" Neji asks

"Because. I'm driving you crazy, you're driving me crazy, and I'd rather have you think good things about me and not see me then see me and hate me. I can't afford to have you hate me, Neji. The only things I care about in this life are me, my weapons, and you. Adios."

She walks away from the table. Neji calls to her.

"Tenten!"

She stops and turns. She looks at him for a moment, turns and disappears into the crowd.

A part of him is walking out. There's no obvious solution to the problem. He's torn between love and friendship, and love has to win. He turns back in his seat and looks at his watch. He fears that Sakura won't show. He slides down in his chair to wait it out.

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**End chapter 8! I hope you liked it! I'm going on vacation for two weeks so there won't be any updates until then. Not really a big deal cause I don't usually update before that anyway, but I thought I should tell you. Please leave a review! And I'll try really hard to get something to you quick!**


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9, I think? Anyway, sorry for a delay and hope you enjoy. Oh, and I want to thank Toph43, because they reviewed and have one of those private messages things. So thanks for the review, and I'm glad you like it, Toph43!**

**I do not own Naruto or Some Kind of Wonderful…**

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It's a big, new, and semi clean mall. Hanabi is sitting on a food court table with her friends, talking to the group.

"I'm his sister," she says "If you're a brother or a sister, you're in. It's like they have to accept you or the whole social order collapses."

"You get to go to parties?" A friend asks

"Of course. I'm probably going to the one on Saturday at Sasuke Uchiha's. Neji is going out with Sakura. We might double." Hanabi finishes

"Who'd go with you?" a different member asks

"The choices are limitless." She grins

"Can we go, too?"

"Eventually. If you stay cool."

"You're lying." One says and crosses her arms.

"Oh, really?"

"Yeah." The friend is still defiant, and takes a look around the mall.

Sasuke and a group of friends are hanging around out side a record store. The girl turns back to Hanabi with a big grin.

"If you're so in tight with Sasuke's people, why aren't you down there with them?"

"Because I'm here with you, Baka." Hanabi retorts.

"Maybe you're here because you're false."

"Is this a challenge or something?" Hanabi asks

"Yeah."

Hanabi slides off the table "I was hanging with you fungi in a vain effort to cool you out, but all I get is a breeze, so, cie la vie."

She heads down the mall. The girls watch curiously. Hanabi sneaks glances back at them. She's over-estimated the situation badly. The girls continue to watch Hanabi walk.

"She's a liar. Her brother loathes her. He'd never let her play with his rep."

Hanabi strolls down the mall. She slows as she reaches the boys. She looks back at the girls, strikes an attitude and flips them off. She slides up on another table, adjacent to the group. It looks like she's part of the group.

She's not really connected to the people. She's just on the edges. She puts herself in a confeident, careless attitude. The boys are below and to the side of her. Unaware of her.

"Sakura has to bring him. What else can she do? She can't take the pressure. She'll bring him.

Hanabi makes a puzzled look as she eavesdrops. Sasuke continues the story.

"The partly will go down as expected; Sakura will blow in with the guy; We'll nail him and go back to business as usual. It's real simple.

Hanabi is devastated by what she's overheard. Stunned. All the evil she's done on Neji comes rushing back on her. Tears gather in her eyes. She leaps down off the table and takes off through the mall.

Her friends watch as she charges past, breaking in and out of the crowd.

"Hey, Hanabi! Did they send you for beer?"

They laugh.

Hanabi bursts out of the doors and runs back to the bike rack. She rides as fast as she can home.

-

It's night. Lights are burning. Hanabi rides up on her bike.

Neji is laying in bed looking at the sketch of Sakura hanging on the wall at the foot of his bed. Music is playing and it's lonesome and pale.

Hanabi listens through the door. She flips a table knife in the lock and compromises it. She turns the knob and opens the door. She stays in the doorway, watching, troubled. Neji turns slowly to the door and sees Hanabi. He stares at her.

"I guess you wouldn't be you if you knocked before breaking into my room."

Hanabi stand, she's serious and grieved. "I'm sorry, Neji. I thought if I knocked, you wouldn't open up, and I want to talk."

Neji sits up on his bed. "This should be interesting."

Hanabi walks in and sits on the edge of his desk. "I heard something tonight at the mall. Sasuke Uchiha and his friends were there, and I heard them talking about you.

"So?"

"I've jumped on you pretty hard for a pretty long time, Neji."

"What's your point?" Neji asks

"You know that blood is thicker then water, right?"

Neji rotates his finger, signaling her to get to the gist of her intrusion.

"It's true. I thought I hated you. I really did. But I don't." she says

"What's wronge."

"Neji, it's a joke. Sakura Haruno. The date. The party. The whole thing is a joke. She's going out with you to get you to Sasuke's house so he can mess you up."

Neji freezes.

"I heard Sasuke say it. I heard him, it's true."

"A joke?" Neji repeats.

"I'm sorry, Neji. For everything." Hanabi nods her head.

She backs slowly out the room and closes the door. Neji hears the click of the lock, and he turns to the window. He realizes what a fool he's been. How he's turned from his friends. How exposed he's let himself get. He looks at the sketch of Sakura on the wall.

Sakura is looking over her shoulder.

He shifts his look back to the window. Neji stares out into the night.

-

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-

She stands outside in the small target filled yard, tossing weapons at the furthest sand dummy. Music is blasting from her room, directed outside from her window. She throws along with the rythum of the song, moving around in the grass with graceful steps. She's soaked in sweat, wearing shorts and a old torn shirt. The yard is green, with a small garden nestled under her window. In the summer she takes pride in the beauty of her work. The weapon filled targets, and the vast color of her garden melt together and create her ultimate sanctary. Although she is alone and in a constant struggle to stay a float, this piece of earth is her utopia.

She hears the creak of the old wooden fence, and pauses for a moment, twisting her body to see who was there. Neji, with his hands in his pockets walks towards her. Tenten smiles at him, but she continues her practice. Neji walks over to a tree near the entrance and sits down. Tenten throws one last kunai and joins him, picking up a small remote and turning the volume of the music down with some difficulty. It still plays, but is hardly audiable.

"You're aim is still perfect." Neji says

"I'm working on it." She says back formally, stiff.

"You're neighbor's don't the music?"

"I don't know, I've never asked." She hasn't looked at him since she sat down. "To what do I owe the honor?"

"I have a little problem."

Tenten sense big trouble. She gets up from her spot on the ground and begins picking up her fallen weapons.

"You know hoe you told me that the thing with Sakura was a joke."

"Yeah?"

"It's a joke." He says

"You mean a joke, as in a joke on you?" Tenten asks

Neji nods. Tenten winces. As angry as she was at him, she understands how bad he feels.

"Hanabi overhead Sasuke talking about it. Sakura is supposed to get me over Sasuke's house, and they're gonna pound me."

Neji leans back against the tree. Her reaches behind him and comes up with a bra. Tenten blushes and snatches it away quickly, hiding it behind her back.

"Good thing you found out about it." Tenten says

"She doesn't like Sasuke. I know it. The guy uses her up and down." Neji answers

"You're playing word games. The fact is, she sucker-punched you and set you up to lose your face." Tenten folds her arms over her chest, nearly turning away.

"I'm not afraid of Sasuke."

"You're gonna got through with this?" Tenten turns back, an odd expression on her face.

"I have to." Neji says

"You think it's just Sasuke?"

"If the guy wants me, he'll get me. I don't have to go to a party. He'll find another chance. I'm not gonna hide."

"Leave it alone," Tenten says, trying to keep the desperation out of her voice.

"I can't."

"Why?" Tenten asks

"Because I want to stand up to them."

"Yeah? Well, forge it." Tenten continues "It's impossible. They rule the world, and that's a fact, and you fight it, you get crushed. Another year and you're gone. It's better to swallow pride then blood."

"You don't think that. I'm not going to believe that you think that.

Tenten is completely frustrated. She walks to the garden and looks down at the flowers.

"I'm not giving into them anymore. Not for another year. Not for another minute." Neji says

Tenten turns from the flowers. She can't argue with him.

"I'll do whatever I have to do to make her see me for what I am." Neji continues

Tenten smiles and sits beside him.

"All right. I get it." She says

Neji looks down at her before pressing his back against the tree again. Tenten sighs and rests against him. He turns his face to hers again.

"I'm sorry I was so tough with you." He says

"Me too."

He touches her cheek. "You always hurt the ones you love."

"So, when're beating the shit out of Sakura Haruno?"

Neji looks away and laughs. Tenten doesn't laugh. She just stays still, feeling his body against hers.

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End. I hope you liked it, please leave a review!


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10! Hope you enjoy it!**

**I want to thank Hina Half Heart for being such a good person and trying really hard to review during the recent FF crash. Thanks again!**

**I own nothing…**

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Sakura and Ino and a couple of anonymous friends are in the parking lot talking. Neji crosses to them, and Sakura turns. Ino sneaks a look at her as Neji walks up.

"What time do you want me to pick you up?" Neji asks

Sakura hesitates, looking back at her friends. She's embarrassed.

"You have to check with your friends to see what time you can go out?" he says

"No. I was just…" she doesn't know what to say.

"You just what? It's a simple question."

"I have to think, okay?"

"Don't strain yourself. I'll pick you up at 7:30. If that's a problem, call me." Neji turns away and leaves.

"What was that?" Ino says

"What an asshole." Another friend says

"Shut up." Sakura grits her teeth and walks off.

"Is she serious about him?"

"No." Ino clarifies.

"Sounds like it to me."

"You have a guy dogging you like that you like that for a week and see how clearly you can think, okay." Ino nearly yells.

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Sakura's crossing a playing field, heading to the locker room. She slows as she sees Sasuke waiting at the locker room door. The pause is momentary. She gathers her strength and continues.

"Get lost, Sasuke."

He blocks her entrance to the door with his arm.

"You're still mad?" Sasuke asks "Can we talk?"

"No." she shoves his arm away and walks into the girl's locker room. Sasuke goes right in with her.

Sakura stops and turns to Sasuke.

"This is cute." She says sarcastically.

"I want to talk to you."

"It's too late." Sakura says

"I've been in agony over this." He says

"I doubt it."

"What do I have to do to convince you that I love you?" Sasuke asks

"Start by leaving me alone. I'm late."

She turns; he grabs her and turns her back.

"You're going out with low-life just to hurt me, and you know what? It's working, it hurts."

"You've got everybody pressuring me to get me to your house so you can prove what a stud you are by beating him up."

"Where'd you hear that?" Sasuke asks

"Give me some credit, will you?"

"True, I invited him. Not to beat him up. But to show I'm a good loser." Sasuke reasons

"You're not a good loser. You're just a loser, period."

She pulls her arm free. A whistle blows and Sakura and Sasuke look around. The instructor who has busted Sakura earlier is standing before them. She's angry and mean.

"What's this?" Shizune asks

Sakura is scared, Sasuke couldn't care less.

"I'm talking to Sakura. Can you give me two minutes to finish it up?" he asks

Shizune's eyes narrow. She is outraged.

"Do you mind? There's nothing in here I haven't seen before."

"What's your name?" Shizune asks

Sasuke holds up his hands to stop her "It's Sasuke Uchiha with two 'h's." he turns to Sakura "Can I drive you home?"

The instructor grabs Sasuke by the collar. He yanks away from her and goes to the door.

"I really appreciate this, lady." He says sarcasm dripping.

"Consider yourself reported!"

He ignores her and walks out the door.

"Sakura? Your reputation is hanging in the balance here. Play around with me, and you'll have a lonely year."

"So I hear." She calls back.

She walks into the locker room. Sasuke watches her go, then backs away turning and angrily kicks the doors open.

-

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A destroyed Volkswagen thing pulls up into the station and stops. Kiba gets out, and walks over to the repair bay.

Neji is at the workbench working on a carburetor. He looks up. Kiba's in the open bay.

"What's going on?" Kiba asks, with a toothy grin.

Neji doesn't know why Kiba has come to see him. He shrugs.

"Working."

Kiba walks over to the bench, and Neji wipes his hands on a rag.

"Good money?" Kiba asks

"It's okay."

"Looking at it for a career?"

"No." Neji says flatly.

"But you can always fall back on it. Good move. Listen, I heard about the bullshit with Sakura Haruno and how you're getting set up." Kiba says bluntly

Neji sighs. Does the whole world know?

"There aren't a lot of things I believe in, but one of then is, nobody sets up nobody." Kiba continues "Sasuke Uchiha is pretty rough, but he can be taken. He only works in a pack. We get him alone and Bingo!"

"I don't want to beat anybody up." Neji says

"You pop a knuckle and the gig's historical, right? Perfectly understandable."

"I don't want a fight. That won't solve anything."

"Look, on of the main reasons I'm such an asshole is, guys like Sasuke Uchiha. I can't deal with getting looked down by them. I'd rather have someone inject me with hot lead them be laughed at. I can't handle it. My father says I'm ruining my life to prove something. He's very perceptive for someone his age."

Neji smiles at the extreme remarks.

"I figure, spending two weeks next to you in the morning jail qualifies us as friends, and I told you I'd help you. I want to help you. If you don't want to nail Uchiha, tell me what I can do for you." Kiba smiles

Neji is at a loss as to what Kiba could possible do for him.

"If you're thinking about pounding Sakura Haruno, I don't go in for that." Kiba jokes.

"The offer is help enough, okay? I appreciate it." Neji thanks him.

"If you can't think of someway that I can help you, I'll feel outrageously worthless and crippled. Promise me, you'll think about it."

Neji offers his hand. Kiba looks at it. It's dirty. He hesitates, but shakes it.

"I'll think about it." Neji says

"Cool. In the meantime, can I cop a gallon of gas? I'll pay you back Monday." Kiba says with another toothy grin.

-

-

-

Neji and Tenten are walking down the railroad tracks.

"Do you think anyone can tell that you are carrying $4,200?" Tenten says

"Where would I get $4,200?" Neji asks

"True. You want me to tell you one more time that I think you're crazy?"

"No," Neji says

"You've been hording cash for years, right?" She asks

"Yeah."

She pauses "How bad is you uncle gonna ream you?"

With a smile Neji replies "You won't be able to measure it with existing technology."

"He's a miser, huh?"

"No, it's just real important to him that I get to college."

"He didn't go, huh?" Tenten asks

Neji shakes his head, no.

"I rag on you a lot about your family, but it's only because I'm jealous. It's gotta feel pretty good to have somebody watching out for you like he does." Tenten mumbles.

"Sometimes."

"He's still gonna kill you, though, right?" she laughs.

"Probably," he smiles

After a long pause, Tenten speaks again. "Is it her body or her face?"

"Sakura? I don't know. It's everything."

Tenten considers the remark.

"A fortune teller once told me I'd have big boobs when I grew up."

Neji sneaks a look at her chest.

"What happened?" he says

Tenten shrugs "I don't know. I guess I'm just lucky."

"I want to know why you're helping me with all this?" Neji asks

"Should I not help you? You're my friend. Friends help other friends."

"What do I do for you?" Neji asks

"No way on earth to put into words."

She walks ahead of Neji and heads down the embankment. Neji considers what she says, but comes to no conclusion.

In the distance a train whistle blows…

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**Okay, so that's it for now. I hope you like it. PLEASE REVIEW!!!!!!!!**


	11. Chapter 11

**I hate this computer! I had the whole chapter finished, and saved, and the computer decides to delete it! Thanks a lot computer!**

**Anyway I hope you like this chapter; it's one of my favorites…**

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Neji cuts across the lawn to the back door. He enters and quietly closes the screen door behind him. The faintest click from the handle brings a call from the living room.

"Neji?"

Neji spits off a string of curses for being caught, but turns into the living room.

Hiashi is on the couch with college brochures, a calculator, and lots of paper. He is working figures. He turns to the foyer.

"I have good news." Hiashi says "The treasury bills have gone from ¾% to 7%."

Neji holds a wince as Hiashi hits a tender subject.

"You're earning an extra sixteen dollars a year per bill."

Neji manages a small smile.

"That's great."

"You have your first year's money, Neji. Now all you have to do is pick a school."

"Yeah, I'll get to it." Neji says as he heads upstairs. Hiashi turns back to the figures.

Neji walks into his room and takes off his jacket. He tosses it on a chair and sits down on his bed. Neji takes out a wad of cash from his pocket. He unfolds it, looks at it, and thinks. He glances up at the sketch of Sakura.

-

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-

Sakura smiles, laughing with Ino as they walk through the mall. As they walk past Tenten peeks out of one of the pillars, and follows them.

Ino and Sakura are browsing through a women's clothing store. Tenten slips in the door. She crosses to the shoes and keeps tabs on Sakura as she pretend to look at the shoes. They're obviously revolting, silly things to her.

Sakura looks though the rack of clothes. As she abandons a section, Tenten takes her place, looking at what she's bought. Ino and Sakura are sifting through hanging blouses. Ino tugs Sakura's sleeve to get her attention. She motions her head fro Sakura to look behind her. Discreetly, Sakura turns and looks.

Tenten is doing a bad job of pretending to look preoccupied.

Ino whispers to Sakura, and they both leave and go to the dressing rooms. Tenten goes over to the blouses as the two girls watch from the dressing room. Ino smiles, she has an idea. She leaves the dressing room, and Sakura follows.

Tenten watches from the corner of her eye as Sakura and Ino walk behind her. They clear, and once again Tenten follows.

They turn into a men clothing store, Tenten behind them. The girls cross to a rack of suits, and Ino starts looking through them. She motions for Sakura to do the same. Tenten is looking at a rack of belts, keeping a watchful eye on the girls.

Ino and Sakura leave the suits, and move to the back of the store. Tenten leaves the belts and looks at the suits. As she looks through them, she becomes puzzled. She looks at the sleeve, holds it, and thinks for a minute. Tenten realizes that something is very wrong. She looks up and turns.

Ino and Sakura are looking directly at her.

Tenten sees she's been caught. A moment passes and the embarrassment hits. She turns back to the suits and curses herself for letting herself get trapped.

Ino looks at Sakura with a smile. Sakura isn't amused at the prank, and leaves. Ino doesn't know what she means, but soon follows.

Sakura stops at the door, and Ino continues to walk down the mall. Sakura looks back at the rack of suits.

Tenten is staring at the sleeve. She looks back at Sakura with a hurt, angry look. Sakura gives her a look back, but is still curious.

_What does this girl want? _

-

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-

Tenten is sitting on a work bench. Neji is working on a vintage Jaguar.

"I think we've covered pretty much everything. All the arrangements have been made." She says

"Right," Neji replies

"You know what you're going to say?" she asks

"Whatever comes to mind." He says

"You want to plan it out a bit?" Tenten says

"It'll sound false. I'll just do what my instincts tell me."

"Okay," Tenten replies

Neji gives her a smile. He slams the hood shut and wipes his fingerprints off the paint.

"Not altogether terrible mode of transportation, huh?" he asks

She has something on her mind, but it is hard to bring forth.

"One last detail hangs." She stars.

Neji tosses the rag and leans back on the car.

"Don't think I'm being weird, but what if she wants you to kiss her?" Tenten says

Neji gives her a deadpan look.

"I'm serious." She repeats

With a smile Neji speaks "Well, then I guess I'll just have to kiss her."

"I didn't put in all this time and effort to have you blow it all because you're too vain to admit you're not the king of sexuality." She continues "Sakura Haruno is no minor leaguer who'll be swept off her feet at the touch of your amateur lips. This babe has plenty of battle scars."

"Thanks, but I think I can handle it." Neji says

"I'm not knocking you. In this age of high-tech diseases, you're probably smart to keep to yourself. I just think that maybe you should consider whether or not you can deliver a kiss that kills."

A wave of doubt washes over Neji. He pulls a swift reverse.

"You think I can't?"

"If you say you can, you probably can." Tenten nod her head with disbelief.

"I'm not an expert."

"It's fine. I was just going to work on it with you, but if you're comfortable…"

"How do you work on it?" he asks

She waves him over to the bench she is sitting on.

"Pretend I'm a girl, okay?" she pauses and corrects herself. "I mean, pretend I'm her. Sakura. It's a big stretch, but try it."

Neji shrugs, he can handle it.

"What do you do with you hands?" she asks

"It depends." Neji says

"It doesn't depend, they go on her hips."

"Okay," Neji says

"Do it,"

"Do what?"

"Put your hands on my hips."

Neji stares at her.

"Are you kidding?" he asks

"This is just as weird for me as it ids for you. Let's be men about it." Tenten says

Neji takes a step to the bench. Another step and he is face to face with her. He gingerly lays his hands on her hips. She grabs his writs and plants them firmly against her body.

"Look in my eyes." She says

Neji look, and laughs. Tenten glares at him.

"I don't have to do this, you know." She says

"Sorry, it's just…"

"Grow up a little." She says

Neji resets, clears his smile and looks into her eyes.

"She'll probably do this…"

She puts her arms around his neck.

"Ho do you know?" he asks

"I watch a lot of TV." She pauses "Close you eyes."

He closes his eyes. She takes the opportunity to steel herself. She moves slowly towards him. Her lips part; and she hesitates for a brief moment. He opens his eyes.

"Keep your eyes closed!" she shouts

"Why are you staring at me?" he asks

"I'm seeing if you look stupid."

"And?"

"You're fine." She says

Neji slams his eyes shut. She repeats the move and then gently presses her lips to his. His fingers squeeze Tenten's hips. She clutches his shirt. Tenten's legs close around Neji's waist. She suddenly catches herself, opens her eyes and breaks the kiss. She pushes him away.

"Okay, fine!" she nearly yells

"What?!"

"Lessons over, you're cool." She stutters

Neji smiles "You're blushing."

"Yeah, right. The day I blush…" she begins

"That was very nice. You're pretty."

Tenten raises a leg, plants it on Neji's belly and pushes him across the room. She jumps down off the bench.

"If this is how you repay a favor, I don't think I'm rich enough to be your friend."

She storms out of the garage. Neji is dumbfounded.

"I didn't mean anything! I'm sorry. I was kidding." He calls

She stops. Maybe she'd rather he wasn't kidding. She turns, and sees that he is genuinely sorry he's offended her.

"Don't be mad, okay?" he says

She forces a smile, and he smiles back.

"I won't tell anybody about this." Neji says

She nods, turns and heads down the road; she wipes her mouth on her sleeve. He watches her go with a smile.

"I'll see you tonight!" he calls after her.

Tenten lifts a hand, but doesn't turn. He leans against the Jaguar and watches her disappear down the road.

-

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Sorry for a late update, but I hope you liked this chapter! Please review!


	12. Chapter 12

**Sorry for the late update, I was really busy with school and stuff.**

**I own nothing**

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Sakura Haruno looks in the mirror with wet hair, fresh from the shower. She stares at herself, unsure if she is doing the right thing.

Tenten stares into the glass of a broken mirror. A towel is draped around her shoulders, like a jock. Her hair is also wet, right from a bath.

Sakura blow dries her hair.

Tenten shakes her hair dry with a towel with short, hard bursts.

Sakura opens a make-up case, loads a brush and applies it to her face.

Tenten pries open a make-up case. Dabs a pad, turns her face to the mirror and blots out a small tattoo on her neck.

A stocking is drawn up a leg. Who's leg?

A hand yanks a blouse off a close rack. A plastic store bag is torn open. A button is fastened. Up with a zipper. Bracelets are loaded onto a wrist. In quick secession a ring is slid onto four fingers. A foot slides into a boot. Lipstick, red and wet. Black glass studs fit into ears. An earring is removed. Hand loads a purse with gum and money.

-

Neji is in the shower. The water is beating on his face, and he is singing loudly.

"Round and Round she goes, the world of Sakura Jones, I said round and round and round, and round…" (A/N this is a song, so let's pretend that Neji is really singing and is adapting this song to fit Sakura's name.)

Hiashi stands outside the bathroom door. He is listening with a rising anger.

"The little girl she just wanders about, 'till it's time for her coming out…"

Hiashi enters the room, and pulls the toilet handle, flushing the toilet. Neji continues singing.

"Round and Round and Round…"

The water suddenly turns cold. Neji's eyes open in shock and he screams. He pulls the shower curtain aside to revel Hiashi staring at him with a stern look.

"Uncle! What are you doing?"

Hiashi continues to stare, arms folded across his chest. "Get dressed. I want to talk to you."

Neji's mind quickly goes to the money. He knows it's about the money.

-

Hiashi stands at the window in Neji's room. Neji walks in wearing jeans and an unbuttoned shirt. Hiashi turns as Neji comes in. There's an exchange of looks.

"I want to know what's wrong."

Neji doesn't answer.

"Are you in trouble?"

"No." Neji says

"Were you at the bank recently?"

Neji blanches. His uncle knows. The game is up.

"You withdrew the college money?"

Neji realizes there is no point in lying.

"Yeah." He says

"It's going back, Neji, Every last damn cent is going back. You don't get this close to something and through it away."

"It's not going back, because I don't have it. I spent it."

"What did you buy? A car? Whatever you bought, you can take it back. Anmd you are going to take it back!"

"Uncle I can't. I don't want to." Neji says

I don't care what you want the money is going back to the bank!"

"You're not listening to me. I don't have it. I can't get it back."

"You had no right to touch that money!"

"I had every right. I earned it!" Neji says

"Where's the money?"

"Uncle, listen to me. The money is not important."

"You don't know what the hell you're saying."

"I know what I'm saying. You never listen. You only hear what you want. Listen to me. I'm not going to college. The money is gone, it's over! The whole dream! It's not what I want it's what you want. I never wanted it. I just didn't have the guts to tell you."

"You're eighteen years old, for heaven's sake!"

"Next year I'm nineteen. Then I'm twenty. When does my life belong to me?"

Hiashi doesn't have the answer. It's something he's never considered.

"I'm going out with a girl tonight." Neji continues "She's beautiful, and everybody's in love with her, and she's going out with me. In the eyes of most people around here, I'm nothing. And probably in her eyes, too. She's going out with me to get back at her boyfriend. They've got this plan together to beat me up…"

"Who?" Hiashi asks

"People at school. It's all right. I can handle it. The point is, nobody thinks anything of me. To them, I'm a zero, and so I don't start agreeing with them, I'm going through with this date. I'm going to show this girl that I'm as good as anybody else."

"You're going to impress her with money? That's not a solution, Neji."

"Didn't you have guys at school that didn't fit in?" Neji asks

Hiashi thinks about it, he recalls a few.

"Well I'm one of those guys."

Hiashi looks down. He's never given much though to his nephew's social status. He always assumed that things were fine.

"I thought things were all going well for you."

Neji shrugs.

"I like art, I work in a gas station, and my best friend is a tomboy. These are not things that fly too well in high school."

"So, what's the money for?"

"The date." Neji answers

"You were serious?" Hiashi says

Neji nods his head. Dead serious.

"How can you blow all that money?"

"It doesn't make sense unless you're me. But I did it. If you want to nail me, I'll understand. Tonight's for my future. No matter what happens, I'll come out of it knowing that I mean something, if only to myself, and that's worth forty-two hundred dollars. If I have to wait a year before I go to college, then that's the way it has to be."

Hiashi looks at him for a long moment, then nods. A bit of a smile slides across his features. Pride. He slaps his knee and stands.

"Get dressed. You're going to be late." He says as he stands in front of a stunned Neji.

Neji offers his hand, and Hiashi takes it. They shake, and Hiashi slaps Neji on the shoulder.

"Thanks." Neji says

"If it's legal, I don't care what you did with that money." Hiashi says

"It's all square." Neji replies

Hiashi reaches in his pocket and comes up with a couple of bills. He sets them on Neji's desk.

"So long as you're blowing it, here's a little more."

"I'm covered. It's not necessary." Neji waves his hands

"Keep it, or I'll feel lousy."

"For what?" Neji asks

"For not taking ten minutes out of the last ten years to realize how lucky I am to be able to call you my nephew."

Neji smiles.

"Don't be a hero." Hiashi claps Neji on the shoulder again.

Neji shakes his head. Hiashi grabs the door knob and opens the door. Hanabi is standing in the doorway. He's holding a butter knife.

"Hi. I was just coming to tell Neji that Tenten is downstairs to pick him up." She says

"Don't bug him. He's in a hurry." Hiashi says as he walks down the hall.

"Neji do you think it's possible that Dad'll stay this cool, or do you think he'll go back to normal in the morning?" Hanabi asks Neji

"I think he'll stay cool." He answers

"I'll pray. Good luck tonight. I've got all my friends crossing their fingers for you." Hanabi smiles "You want me to lock up for you?"

She twists the butter knife, and Neji nods.

-

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-

At Sakura's house, it's dusk. Magic hour. The Jaguar Neji has been working on glides into the driveway.

The driver's door opens, and Tenten gets out. She is completely transformed. She's forsaken the macho image and is coiffed and dressed in a fashion that isn't a sell-out, but that is more true to her biological status. A dark blue long sleeve dress shirt is covered by a black vest, buttoned up and fitting her form tightly. The pants are just as black as the vest and slightly loose. What remains of her old wardrobe are the red gloves and the buns in her hair. She walks around the car to the rear door and opens it. Neji steps out. It's a new Neji. No grease, no blackness. Bright, new, strong. He offers his hand to Tenten. She takes it and kisses it.

"Gimme a break. Look at us, for Kami's sake." She says

"I think you look amazing." Neji says

"It's too bad my grandmother bit the dust. She'd be proud. I'm wearing a bra." Tenten comments

Neji smiles

"Yes, it's true. I broke down and got a boulder holder. It's very weird and highly uncomfortable, and I guess this is personal, and I don't know why I'm talking like this; it's none of your business, so go get over yourself and let's roll."

She leans back against the car. Neji salutes her and heads up to the house. Tenten fidgets with the bra.

Neji rings the doorbell, and Sakura comes down the stairs. She looks better then ever, to Neji. She yells a farewell on her way out.

"That's for me! Bye!"

"What time will you be home?" a male voice calls back

"Early!" she answers

"Tell Sasuke hello for us!" A female voice calls this time.

Sakura hesitates "I will!"

She pulls open the door, and freezes. She takes a closer look. Sakura is startled by the change in Neji.

"Hi," she says

Neji nods to her "You ready?"

She smiles

"You look," diplomatically "different."

"Then what?" Neji asks

"Before."

"No grease?" he says

Tenten stands at the car with the back door open. Sakura and Neji come down off the porch. Sakura slows as she sees the Jaguar. She looks at Neji again.

"What?" he asks

"Is that your car?" she asks

"For right now it is." He answers

"How did you get it?" Sakura asks

"Is it that important? Do you not want to ride in it?" Neji says

"It's fine. I just wondered."

"I can tell you. It's not very exciting." He pauses "It's stolen."

A little hint of a smile spreads across her cheeks.

"Does the owner know about it?" she asks

"No. Should I call him?"

She smiles again.

"No? Yeah, let's call him."

Neji starts back to her house, but she stops him.

"I was just kidding." He says

-

Tenten smiles sheepishly as Neji and Sakura step to the car. There's a moment of recognition as Sakura and Tenten exchange looks. Sakura recognizes the clothes Tenten is wearing as the clothes she was looking at when Tenten was tailing her at the mall. Tenten knows she knows.

"Yeah it's me." Tenten says

Sakura gets in the car. Neji gives Tenten a wink and gets in. She closes the door.

"I'm gonna love this one. I can just feel it." Tenten says

-

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**A nice long one right? Again sorry for the late update, and I hope you enjoyed This. Please review! It makes me update faster!!!**


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13! Sorry for a late update, again…**

**I own nothing…sadly**

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The Jaguar is parked in front of a barbeque place. The village's dicey. Tenten sits behind the wheel, listening to the radio, tapping her fingers on the dashboard. A couple of kids are looking at the car.

"Touch it and you die." She says a senbon between her teeth.

In the restaurant is crowded. It's loud with customers and smoky in the corner where a few older men smoke. Neji and Sakura sit in a booth by the window.

"Be honest. How many guys have you gone out with who would have the class to bring you top a place like this?" Neji asks

"None," she replies

"I thought so."

"Look, how this happened is as much a mystery to me as it is to you. And I'm not any more thrilled then you. Okay? So stop giving me attitude."

"I'm giving you attitude?" he asks

"Like in the gym Friday. Pulling the power play with the he-man bullshit about how I have to ask my friends for permission. I didn't care for it." Sakura's voice increase in volume with each point.

"It's true, thought, isn't it?" Neji says

"At least I have friends."

"Do you? Really?" Neji says

"Hey, do you want to end this right now?"

"You don't want to eat?" he continues "It's ordered, you may as well take advantage of a free meal. Sit back and relax, pretend I'm dead."

"I wish."

Sakura turns around and looks into the crowd. She sees Ino and her two friends up to their elbows in barbeque. One of them, Choji, waves a rib at her. She smiles sheepishly at him and returns the wave, she turns back to Neji.

Neji is smiling. Sakura doesn't know why. A waitress serves a huge platter of ribs, and Neji keeps smiling. Sakura stares at the ribs, and then looks up at him.

"What did you expect? I work at a gas station. My inheritance will be a Timex watch and a lawn mower." He says

"I can't believe you'd bring me to a place like this to eat something like that." She says

"It's delicate, it's elegant."

He still has that smirk. She breaks a smile.

"Are you aware that you just smiled? What could that mean?"

Her smile grows, and she can't stop it. It's all so ridiculous.

Out in the parking lot, Tenten has ventured out of the car. She's standing at a window, looking in. What she can see is Neji and Sakura talking. It's obvious that the situation has improved. Tenten turns away from the window. A look, serious concern, on her face.

Sakura tried to daintily eat a dripping rib.

"You work a lot?" she asks

"Not really. Twenty hours a week, maybe."

"You like it?"

"Sometimes," a blushing Tenten pops into his mind suddenly, and he quickly shakes it away. "What about you? Do you work?"

"No"

"You ever worked"

"No. But I'll work this summer." She says

"You didn't work last summer?"

Sakura shakes her head, no.

"Beach?"

Sakura smiles. She knows it's a gentle insult.

"Where do you get your money?"

"Why don't we talk about something else?" she says

"What do you want to talk about? Sports?"

Sakura smiles. Neji lets her off the hook.

"Do you wrestle?" he asks

She bursts out laughing.

-

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-

Neji and Sakura exit the restaurant. Tenten is at the wheel again. She glances over. Neji is waiting for her to open the door. She groans and gets out.

"I can get the door." Sakura says, reaching for the handle.

"I got it. Sorry I wasn't on the ball, I was comatose." Tenten says

Tenten walks around to the door and opens it. Sakura gets in, and Neji hands Tenten a paper bag.

"I got you something." He says

"For me? A gift?" she says facetiously

"I thought you might be hungry."

"Jeez. Thanks. Eating ribs and driving, that's about as handy as skiing and doing your takes."

"I though you could eat at the next stop." Neji says

"Thanks, Neji. Can I book a time to go to the bathroom?" She says

"What's your problem?" Neji asks

"Nothing." Says Tenten

Neji leans over the door, and speaks to Sakura. "One second."

He closes the door.

"You volunteered to do this you know. I was prepared to drive myself, and you said 'oh, no, I'll drive, so you can talk.' Remember?"

It was this morning, baka, of course I remember." Tenten says

"So, why are acting like this?" Neji asks

She grabs the bag from Neji and walks around the front of the car. Neji doesn't understand why she's being so difficult. Sakura watches the little spat from the car. Tenten gets in the car and starts the engine. Neji gets in. He gives Sakura a little smile and Tenten, a puzzled look.

"If me dinner reeks, let me know, I'll put it in the trunk." Tenten says

"It's fine." Sakura says

"The, we're off." Tenten says

She drops the car into gear and pulls out.

-

Tenten drives. Sakura and Neji are in the back seat. Neji is looking at Tenten, he's annoyed with her. She glances at the mirror and catches his look to her. She turns her eyes forward, feeling as if she let out too much emotion. She flips on the radio to help disguise her exposure. Sakura slumps down in her seat and lays her head back.

She rolls her head to the side to look at Neji. He is still looking at Tenten. Sakura looks forward again, thinking.

-

-

-

Museum of Art….

It's late. The museum is long closed. The Jaguar is parked in front. Tenten opens the door for Sakura and Neji. They get out, and Sakura looks up at the building.

"What are we doing here?" she asks

"It's an art museum." Neji says

"I know, but what are we doing here?"

"You don't like art?" Neji asks

"Yeah, but isn't it closed?"

"That doesn't mean we can't go in."

Neji leads Sakura up to the building. She doesn't get it. Tenten leans back against the car. All her hopes are slipping away.

Neji and Sakura approach the loading dock. Neji gives her a hand up, and she clumsily climbs the dark steps. A heavy door opens up to reveal Kiba, from detention, and Shikamaru beside him.

"Welcome." Kiba says

Sakura looks curiously at Neji. He gives her another smile. He leads her in.

A security guard is standing at a door. He's a bit portly, and middle aged man.

"No monkey business." He says to Kiba.

"Dad, freeze it, okay. Please?"

The guard reaches for his keys and opens the door for Neji and Sakura. Neji hold his hand up high, and Kiba slaps it. Shikamaru sighs and heads out the loading dock door that the couple had just come through.

"Thanks." Neji says, not noticing the disappearance of the other boy.

"Anything for a friend, pal."

Neji and Sakura head into the museum and Kiba turns to his dad.

"Hey, where did Shikamaru go?"

-

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The lazy boy walks out to the parking lot with his hands stuffed in his pockets. He sees Tenten leaning against the Jaguar. She is watching him walk her way. She wears the same expression he saw her with when he sat with her a few days before. It a sadness hidden under a façade of a tough and independent little girl.

He stops in front of her, lifting a hand from his pocket in a silent greeting. Shikamaru leans against to car next to her, and both are silent.

"What a drag."

"Yeah, a wicked drag." Tenten sighs

"So what do you say we waste some time." He smiles at her, and she laughs.

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**The next chapter will be the last, so I really want some reviews on this one. Okay? Please?**


	14. Chapter 14

Sorry for another late update. School has been…well school. And I feel like my mind is slush, and working on my fanfics wouldn't have been a good idea. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this last installment of Some Kind of Wonderful, and I really appreciate all the support I've gotten for it. All my readers and reviewers, you mean so much to me! I love you all!

I own nothing…

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Sakura and Neji move through the dark museum. Moonlight shines through the skylights, and security light occasionally caste patterns of light on the wooden floors and plaster walls. The whole building is massive, silent and forbidden.

"Have you ever been here before?" Neji asks

"In grade school." Sakura replies.

"I come all the time. But I've never been here at night. Do you like it?" he asks

"It feels pretty good being somewhere I'm not supposed to be." Sakura says

"Or being with someone you're not supposed to be with?" he asks

Sakura smiles, and looks around the gallery. Painting are dimly lit, some more so then the others. Something catches her eye and she looks closer. She turns to Neji quickly, startled. He smiles a sly smile back at her. Sakura looks back at the painting.

It's the painting Neji has been working on at school, now complete and hanging on the museum wall. Her eyes are wide as she stares, and Neji continues to smile. Sakura is shocked, flattered, stunned.

Sakura sits on the stone bench. She pulls a leg up to her chest and stares at the painting. Neji sits next to her, and she looks at him, then at the painting.

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Tenten and Shikamaru are sitting in the Jaguar. Her hands grip the steering wheel tightly, and their spot in the lot which was once straight is now crooked and taking up two spaces. He has a hand tightly fastened to the bar above his head, and his other hands nearly digging into the seat at his side. Both of them are breathing hard, smiles on their lips.

"Well, how that for wasting time?" Tenten says, looking over at Shikamaru and giving him a toothy grin.

"Not really what I had in mind, but it will suffice. You don't think we wrecked the tires too much, do you?" He says as he brings his hand down from the bar and smoothes out the hair on top of his head leading to the spiky ponytail.

Tenten stretches her legs out, and lets them fall on the dashboard. Shikamaru looks over at her and sees that she is lost in a deep sadness.

She pulls at the pants on one of her knees, looks at her thighs, looks at her jacket. She feels so foolish for the way she's dressed. She feels foolish that she's tried to be a girl and in her mind, failed. Her eyes fill with tears, which she tried to hold back. A tears spills, and she wipes it away with the back of her hand. More tears fall and she can't wipe them away. She bows her head and succumbs to her feeling.

Shikamaru watches, and although he is said to be a genius, has no idea what to do. His hands twitch in his lap as his brain desperately searches fro a way to help Tenten. Then his finds his hands moving on their own accord, and fall on her shoulder. He feels her shaking, and sees when she wipes at her face furiously before turning to him.

"What? I have allergies!" she says, her voice cracking.

"You're so troublesome, Tenten." He says

"Yeah, yeah I know." She wipes away more tears.

He pats her awkwardly on the back again, and she can't help but laugh a bit.

"Thanks Shikamaru."

"For what? I don't know how to comfort a crying women."

"Cause it's too troublesome, right?"

"Yeah, troublesome."

"Alright! How 'bout a few more times around, and then I give you a lift home?" she runs her hand under her eyes one last time, and rights herself in the seat.

"Alright. But stay and look at the stars with me for a while when we get then, okay?"

"Yeah, okay. Girly." She laughs

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They're outside now, in the middle of the museum's mock concert hall. Neji's legs are hanging over the edge of the stage and Sakura is facing him with her knees under her chin. Tenten is high p in the seats. She's lying on her back, staring up at the stars. The two are oblivious to her presence.

"What do you see in me?" Sakura asks "Be honest."

"What do you see in me?"

"Okay, me first?" she says

"Yeah," Neji replies

"Okay," she thinks for a moment. "I see a way out of where I am."

Neji looks at her. He thinks he understands. He's pleased at where the conversation is going.

"Where are you?" he asks

"I'm locked in a small, petty world. I never had any idea who you were other then somebody who was different then everybody else."

"You mean strange?" Neji asks

"Yeah, sort of."

"And now?" Neji asks

"I don't think anybody ever thought of anything of me other then I looked good next to them. And I went because I'd rather be next to someone for the wrong reasons then be alone for the right reasons." She says

"I'd rather be right." Neji says unequivocally

"You can stand being alone?" she asks

"Nobody can stand being alone. If you stop think there's someone out for you somewhere, it's over. Isn't it?" he says

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Tenten sits up and looks down at Sakura and Neji on the stage. She can hardly hear them, but knows what Neji said. She disagrees. When you stop looking, that's when what you're looking for comes out.

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He turns to face Sakura.

"I've been waiting a long time. And I still don't have it. But I will." He says

"I don't know what you mean." Sakura replies

"Yeah, you do." Neji says

"I don't. I swear."

"This is all a joke. I was set up. I was used. Right?" he says

"You think I used you?" She asks

"Didn't you?"

Sakura holds a long look on him. There's no way out of it.

"In a way." She answers

"There's only one way to use somebody, Sakura. You do, or you don't"

Neji's noble stance snaps Sakura. She turns on him. The anger she's been holding in pours out.

"And you didn't use me? You hypocrite! What's hanging in the museum? My soul? It's my face! I look just as good next to you as I do next to Sasuke or any other guy, right? Are you in love with me?" she screams

"I think I might be." Neji says

"You're not. This isn't love and affection. This is revenge. You're using me to pay back every guy with more money and more friends and more power then you. Paint it any color you want, it's _you _ using _me _."

There's a long pause as Neji see the truth behind her attack.

"You're right. I did use you. I used you. For all those reasons."

Sakura appreciates his honesty. It deserves reconciliation.

"And I used you. It's true." She says "It wasn't deliberate. It just happened. You were the right thing at the wrong time. If I'd thought about it, I never would have done it. All I was thinking about was getting away from Sasuke."

"And I used you to stand up for myself."

"Maybe we should call it even?" she says

"Maybe." He says

Neji reaches into his pocket and takes out a jewelry box.

"This is for you."

"What is it?" she asks

"My future. In this box is my future."

Sakura looks at the box.

"And I'm giving it to you. Every dime I have to my name. It's yours." He says

He hands her the box. She takes it with hesitation. She opens it. The contents startle her. Two diamond studs. She looks at Neji with concern.

"I can't take these." She says

Neji nods. "You have to."

Sakura shakes her head and closes the box. "No,"

"You deserve them. I'm giving them to you. I know you like them. I saw you wearing Ino's, remember?" he says

Sakura nods.

"It's insane. This makes no sense, Neji."

"They're yours. For good. You don't have to borrow from anybody anymore. You're too good to do that again." Neji replies

"I never heard of anybody doing anything like this."

"I'm sure it happens every day. Not to everybody, but to the ones who believe in themselves, and don't need anyone to unlock their cage."

Sakura bows her head. The tears start, and she can't help herself. Every negative thought she's had about herself surfaces. Neji's purity, the scope of his sacrifice overwhelms her.

"Why are you crying?"

"I feel so terrible for what I did. I hated the pressure, I hated feeling ashamed." She says "I hated where I was from. I hated that all my friends got everything their hearts desired. I gave into my hatred, and I turned on what I believed in. I didn't have to. You didn't."

"So, you won't do it again. You don't have to. Ever."

Sakura leans forward and kisses Neji. She puts her arms around his neck and pulls him to her.

-

Tenten watches. But she has to look away, it's too painful. It's over and she gets up to leave. She feels so heavy and so light at the same time. Tenten feels like there is a hole in the middle of her chest, and if you looked, you could see right through. Through that hole you could see the two people on the stage, engulfed in each others arms. Two people, one speck on the stage.

Slowly she makes her way up the stairs and back to the parking lot. Once she reaches the car, she climbs up onto the hood and leans against the windshield. Tenten stares up at the sky, and watches as stars pass over her head. She sighs as she hears the footsteps and turns to look.

Neji and Sakura approach the car. He has his arm around her. Tenten tried her best not to look hurt. All she can manage is a grim smile. Neji and Sakura reach the car and Tenten swings her legs over the side.

"Now what?" she asks

"Sasuke's house." Neji replies

Sakura is alarmed. All she can feel is guilt and fear. She looks at Tenten, who is equally shocked.

"Neji? Have you forgotten something? Sasuke wants to beat the crap out of you." Tenten says, crossing her arms.

"It's for real, Neji." Sakura adds

"I know," is all his says

"If you want to do that, you can drive yourself." Tenten says

"I have to face him sooner or later." Neji says as he opens the door for Sakura

"It's not just Sasuke, it's his friends too."

"I can handle it. Come on."

Sakura gives him one last look and gets in. Neji closes the door.

"Don't go overboard, studly." Tenten says

"I know what I'm doing."

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It's loud and crowded. Not particularly rowdy. It's an older crowd who've partied together many times before. Sasuke is in the living room, sitting on the couch with his arm around some girl with red hair and glasses. He's not having a great time. He's on the wait.

The Jaguar pulls up in the front. Neji gets out and helps Sakura out. Tenten gets out on her side. Neji looks up at the house.

"You don't have to do this." Tenten says

"Yeah, I do."

"Okay. I'll be here." Tenten smiles lightly and gives him the 'thumbs up'.

Neji puts his arm around Sakura and they start their way to the front door.

It opens and people are milling about. Someone spots Neji and Sakura and points them out to another. Word quickly spreads. The two exchange looks. Neji squeezes her hand and smiles down at her.

Tenten closes the doors of the car and leans against the hood. She rests her chin on her hands and watches the house.

Word has reaches Sasuke that he ahs a visitor. He quickly gets up off the couch and crosses to the foyer.

"Welcome." He says

Neji and Sakura step into the marble foyer. The crowd backs away to give them an inescapable feeling of isolation. Sasuke is as calm and charming as ever.

"I'm glad you could come by. I was worried you were gonna disappoint us."

Karin (the girl on the couch) pushes through the crowd and slips her arm around Sasuke's waist. He kisses her forehead.

"Have a good time?" Sasuke says to Neji

Sakura knows the display with the girl is only an attempt to humiliate her. She tries not to let any emotion show.

With a wicked glint in his eyes, Sasuke addresses Neji.

"She deceptively innocent, isn't she? So clean and nice on the outside."

Neji: Sharp internal reaction.

Sakura: She'd like to tear Sasuke's throat out.

Sasuke: A slick smile.

"She do you?" he asks.

Both Neji and Sakura narrow their eyes.

"The one thing I'm happy about is you get her used." Sasuke finishes

He's had enough. Neji lunges at Sasuke. He drives Sasuke against the wall. Sasuke's friends jump in and pull Neji away. Sasuke straightens up.

"That wasn't very smart friend." He rubs his neck and clears his throat. "I was letting you off. I don't care about you."

He glares at Sakura.

"She's the trash, Neji. You're just a fool. Take him outside and kick the shit out of him."

Sasuke's guests stare at him. No response. No movement. Sasuke is annoyed, he doesn't understand their hesitation.

"I said take him outside." He gets the same reaction "Is there a problem?"

Neji steps forward "Why don't you take me outside?"

Slowly the whole room starts to empty. Everyone is walking out the door.

"What are you doing? If you leave, you don't ever come back. You really want to do this? I'm serious. Anybody who walks through that door is finished with me. Got it? Naruto! What are you doing?"

Neji steps forward as the room empties. The last stranger leaves, and it's only Sasuke, Sakura and Neji.

"You want the truth? The plain truth? You're over." Neji says

He raises a hand in farewell. Sakura looks at him. Her anger hasn't subsided.

"You're gonna walk?" she asks

"There isn't anything I can do to him that he hasn't already done to himself."

"I wish I could live with that." Sakura says

She turns back to Sasuke. He stands alone and stunned in the foyer. She draws back and slaps him clean across the face. A sharp smack. She steps back, takes Neji's hand and they exit. Sasuke stands alone, rubbing his stinging cheek.

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Tenten smiles. She is on the lawn and has watched the whole thing from outside.

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Neji and Sakura come out the door. Sakura is shaking her hand and smiling. Neji looks across the lawn. Tenten is waiting for them. She's jingling the car keys.

He's momentarily forgotten about her. In the tension of the confrontation and anticipation of it, Tenten had vanished from his thoughts. It occurs to him that his victory is as much her doing as his.

Tenten manages a smile.

Sakura's eyes shift to Neji and the smile dissipates.

Neji and Sakura step down off the porch and cross the lawn. Tenten comes forward from the car to meet them.

"Nice move. I saw it from out here." She says

Sakura smiles and Neji tries to. There's an uncomfortable pause. The kind that always accompanies a painful farewell.

Tenten speak, trying her hardest not to break. "So…why don't you guys go on. I'm gonna walk." She forces a smile "My butt's asleep from sitting all night."

She offers a hand to Sakura, who takes it. Tenten shakes it hard and sincere.

"Sorry if I misjudged you." Tenten says

She can barely hold back the tears. Tenten backs away.

"The keys are in the car."

She holds up her hand in farewell, turns and heads down the street.

The two watch her go. Sakura looks at Neji watching Tenten.

He's thinking. Forgetting everything. She's the only thing on his mind. Sakura reaches to her ears and removes the diamond earrings. Neji turns to see her take out the second one. She takes his hand and places the jewelry in his palm. She curls his fingers closed around them.

"I think you want to give these to someone else." She says

Neji is startled that she knows what he is thinking. She kisses his cheek. Neji doesn't know what to say to her.

"Go,"

Neji can't wait to take off. He kisses her cheek, turns and walks away.

"Neji?"

He stops and turns.

"I'll never forget you." She says

"I'll never forget you, either."

He turns and takes off. Sakura watches him with a proud smile. Ino approaches from behind.

Are you okay, forehead?"

"Yeah."

Ino puts her arm around Sakura.

"I think you won." She says

"I think I did." Sakura says back

"Come one I'll give you a ride home."

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Tenten is marching down the middle of the street. Tears are running down her cheeks, staining her collar.

Neji is coming up behind her. He stops and calls out to her.

"Tenten!"

She stops cold. Bewildered. She turns.

She sees him running down the street, and her face can't help but show that she is anticipating the best.

Finally they meet.

"I love you." Neji says

Tenten bursts into tears. Neji sweeps her off the ground, spins her around and crushes her in his arms. She clutches his shirt, nearly tearing it off him. They kiss. She gasps and presses her head to his chest and squeezes him once the kiss is broken.

"I'm sorry. I didn't know." Neji says

"You're stupid. I always knew you were stupid." Tenten puts in.

"You never told me." Neji says, referring back to his previous statement.

"You never asked."

He pulls her away from him. He opens her hand and put the earring in her palm. She looks up at him with a huge smile.

"I wanted these. I really wanted them." She whispers

"They're yours."

Tenten immediately starts to put them on. Neji notices that, for the first time, she is not wearing a multitude of earrings. Tenten smiles, and Neji laughs.

"You knew! You knew you would get them." He is shocked. So is she from the sound coming from his mouth.

"I didn't know. I just hoped." She says, still smiling.

"You knew."

Tenten finishes and her smile widens.

"I had a feeling. Just a feeling. They look okay?" she asks

Neji nods. "You look good wearing my future."

"These babies go back in the morning. You're going to art school."

"We'll keep one and make it a ring." Neji says

"You don't want to think about that one. Do you?"

Neji shakes his head, no. There's no doubt in his mind. She draws him to her and gently presses her lips to his. He folds her into his arms. They break the embrace and start down the street.

"I had this feeling when you kissed me that something was happening." Neji says

"Why didn't you say something?" Tenten asks

"I feared for my life."

"You know, that was the first time I kissed anybody." Tenten confesses.

"I know." Neji says

"How did you know?"

"Because you did it wrong." He replies

"I did not!" Tenten retorts

"Yeah you did."

"How do you know I did it wrong?" she asks

Tenten stops and takes his collar, pulling him in for one more kiss.

The End

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And that's the end. I really hope you liked it. Please leave a review. I know it's the last chapter, but a review would still be really great. It doesn't even take that much time.

And those who have reviewed, I want to thank you again. You're all the best and this story was made just for you!


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